Uncertainty
by Kamino'89
Summary: There's always that uncertainty. Do they or Do they not? Is she or is she not? Am I seeing things, looking too much into it? One things for sure, Brittany has a crush on Santana. But are those feelings one sided? Follow the Story of Santana's struggle & Brittany's uncertainty about where they stand with each other from the beginning. FIRST FIC EVER...R
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** _There's always that uncertainty. Do they or Do they not? Is she or is she not? Am I seeing things, looking too much into it? One things for sure, Brittany has a crush on Santana. But are those feelings one sided? Follow the Story of Santana's struggle & Brittany's uncertainty about where they stand with each other from the beginning. _

* * *

**Chapter 1**

_Beep Beep Beep Beep...That's the sound that 10 year old Brittany hears outside her window when she wakes up that morning. She walks over to her window to look out of it and sees a moving truck backing into the driveway. More new neighbors. Brittany and her family just moved into the newly built neighborhood not too long ago. It's just Brittany, her Mom, Dad and younger brother by 2 years, Brandon. They've only been there for about 2 months and since then Brittany hasn't really felt the need to go outside as much until she sees the younger girl hop down from inside the moving truck. There are mostly boys in this neighborhood so finally having another girl to play with too may be fun._

"Finally someone else to play with."_ Brittany says out loud but more so to herself since it's still kind of early in the morning. She just sits at her window and watches them unload the truck. The girl seems to be about Brittany's age so there's definitely a chance of them becoming friends she thinks. Instead of putting it off any longer, Brittany eagerly gets ready for the day so she can go out and meet her new neighbors. After she washes her face and brushes her teeth, She goes to ask her mom and dad If she can go outside._

* * *

_Brittany walks over to her mom's side of the bed and says..._

"Mom?"_ she says shaking her awake._

"Yes sweetheart."_ her mom, Susan, answers as she stretches and yawns._

"Can I go outside? I already washed up and everything."_ sounding hopeful_

"What time is it?"_ she says squinting looking at the clock on the nightstand._

"Umm...Like 8:32."_ she reply's looking over her shoulder._

"It's early hun. There's probably no one outside. Did you even have breakfast yet?"

"Well no, but there's some new neighbors moving in next door and I could make me a bowl of cereal."_, she said trying to reason with her mom._

"Just let her go. It's Saturday."_ said by her dad, Benson, waking up to the conversation._

"Since your father says It's OK, go ahead. But wake up your brother and make sure you make him some cereal too before you go."

"Yes!"_ Brittany cheers excitedly as she runs out of her parent's room towards her Brother Brandon's room._

* * *

_She hops on her younger brother's bed to wake him up._

"Get up Brand! Time for breakfast."

"Nooo...I don't want to yet."_ he says as he fights consciousness._

"Come on. Mom said to wake you up and make you some cereal."

"I can make my own cereal."_ Brandon says tiredly._

"Well...whatever. If you make a mess, you better clean it up. I'm gonna go get dressed and go outside after breakfast."_ And she's gone._

* * *

_While Brandon continues to be lazy and sleep, Brittany goes back to her room into the closet to get some clothes on. After getting dressed Brittany heads to kitchen for her cereal._

_Staring into the cabinet_

"Cinnamon Toast Crunch or Apple Jacks?"_ sighs _"I don't have time for this. I'm making both"_ why not?  
_

_Brittany does a half & half of both cereals and pours the milk into the bowl afterwards. As soon as she's done, Brittany puts her shoes on to go outside. Instead of going straight next door across the yard, she decides to sit on her porch for a second. _

"What do I say?"_ she ponders to herself.  
_

_A little while after that she sees the girl from before coming outside the house, walking up the ramp into the back of the truck. But this time she has a better view of the girl. She has long brunette hair flowing down her back and the cutest little dress on. Brittany looks down to her own attire and she's wearing some ripped up jeans and a ninja turtle t shirt. _"Oh well."_ she thinks._

* * *

_Next door across the yard_

"Santana you be careful picking up that stuff. I don't want you to hurt yourself or break anything."_ The older woman says from the porch._

"I got it mami!"_ the younger girl says from inside the truck._

* * *

_Back over to the other yard_

"Santana? So that's her name. Cool. That's different but cool."_ Brittany thinks to herself._

_Making her way back down the ramp, Santana drops the box._

"Ugh!"_ she yells in frustration.  
_

_Brittany sees this and rushes over to help her. _"Hey. Need some help?"

_Santana looks up towards the girl and responds,_

"No I got it."_ with a little bit of a attitude.  
_

_Brittany takes a step back. _

"Whoa!"_ If looks could kill. She's kind of glaring but she has the prettiest eyes she has ever seen. Shaking herself from her daze, she continues,_"You sound like my little brother Brandon. Never wants help with anything. Thinks he's a big boy. I'm pretty sure he's in the house right now making a mess with the cereal."_ laughing at the thought.  
_

_Santana just stares at Brittany while trying to hold her box upright.  
_

_AWKWARD...  
_

"Oh! My name is Brittany. I live right next door."_ She holds her hand out to shake but says never mind when she realizes she's still holding the box. _"Santana right? I heard your mom say it earlier. I mean that was your mom right? She looks like she could be your mom. If not..."_  
_

_Santana interrupts her before she can finish though.  
_

"You talk a lot. But yeah that's my name and my mom."_ she says. _

"Cool. So you sure you don't need any help?"_ she asks hopefully trying to make a new friend. _

"Well..."_ Santana begins to answer but..._

"Brittany!"_ Susan, her mom, yells from the kitchen window._

"Uh Oh...I knew it. I just know he made a mess. And now I'm about to get in trouble for it. I'm sorry, I'll be right back. Don't leave. I'm coming right back. OK?"_  
_

_Santana just laughs _"I'm not going anywhere."_  
_

"OK cool."

* * *

_She runs back across the yard into her house to the kitchen. She stops instantly when she sees her mom standing there with her hand on her hip._

"What did he do now?"_ Brittany says trying to lighten up the mood._

"You mean what you didn't do?"_ her mom responds. _"I told YOU to make his cereal and now look at this mess. I'm upstairs lying in bed with your father and I hear all this noise coming from the kitchen. Look at this! A whole gallon of milk on the floor."_ Susan scolds.  
_

_Brittany just now notices her brother standing behind her mom with the mop looking guilty. _

"He said he could do it himself, so I let him."_ she responds._

"Brittany you know that container is too heavy for him. Next time just do as your asked. You're the oldest."_ Susan reminds her daughter._

"Yes mam."_ she answers her mother._

"Now help him clean it up while I go tell your father we have to go out later for more milk."

"But..."_ she begins but after seeing that stern look she says, _"OK"

_Her mom goes back upstairs and Brittany takes the mop from Brandon._

"I'm sorry Britt, I didn't mean to get you in trouble."_ Brandon says feeling bad._

"It's OK Brand but next time, let me help you or at least ask for help. I know you think you're a big boy now but there's still things you can't do by yourself. Don't ever be afraid to ask for help. You know I don't mind."_ she says ruffling his hair._

"I know. But I swear I had it, It just slipped while I was trying to put it back in the fridge."_ he says trying to explain._

"I believe you Brand. Just go ahead and finish your cereal, I got this."_  
_

_Brandon hugs her and goes over to the table to finish his Apple Jacks._

* * *

_A few minutes go by and Brittany looks out the window to see If she can still see Santana moving her things. She doesn't see her but she does see a older guy trying to carry some boxes._

"Must be her dad."_ she thinks.  
_

"Almost done Brand?"_ she questions him._

"Done."_ he says getting up._

"Let me get your bowl."_ She rinses it out and sits it in the sink for her parents to wash later. _"Come on. We have new neighbors."_ encouraging her brother to come outside._

"They got kids?"_ he asks excitedly._

"Yeah, a girl."_ Brittany says just as excited._

"Eww. Don't wanna play with no girl."_ Brandon says with a frown of disgust on his face.  
_

_Brittany laughs at his facial expression _"Hey! I'm a girl!"_ she says as she nudges his arm playfully.  
_

"Yeah but you're Britt. You're not like other girls."_ he says matter of factly as head out the door.  
_

"What's that supposed to mean?"_ confused at the 'other girls' statement.  
_

"Your fast, you like sports, video games, you can fight and you play with boys. I bet she wears dresses and plays with dolls."_ he explains.  
_

"Maybe she does but that doesn't mean anything. Girls can play with boys."_  
_

"No. Only you can. When I tried to play with that girl Mercedes the other day she yelled at me for messing her hair up."_ says Brandon sounding irritated by the thought of her  
_

_Brittany laughed at her brother's story _"That's just Mercedes though. Not all girls are like that. Plus I think Mercedes is funny."_ she said trying to get through to him.  
_

"Whatever. I just think that girls are loud & weird. I'm gonna go see If Puck & Sam can come outside."_ he says walking off.  
_

"Alright well stay where I can see you."_ Brittany yells as he walks off.  
_

"Britt, They live up the hill!"_ he yells back down to her.  
_

"Well see If they can come down here & play! But come right back!"_  
_

"OK!"_ he says as he gives her the thumbs up and continues up the hill._

* * *

"Oh shoot! Santana."_ Almost forgetting why she was even excited to come outside in the first place, Brittany runs back across the yard to Santana's. When she gets near the moving truck she sees the older man again. _"Hi mister. Is Santana coming back out? I'm Brittany by the way. I live next door."_ she tells the man._

"Oh hey."_ the guy says looking down to her. _"Yeah she's just putting some stuff up in her room. You can go in If you like."_ he replies nicely._

_Brittany makes her way upstairs and goes to the first door she sees open. As she steps into the room, Her eyes go right to the window._

"Cool. I can see right into my room from here."_ she says out loud walking past the bed towards the window, not noticing the girl in the closet._

_Startled, Santana says, _"Where did you come from?!"_ coming out of the closet.  
_

_Turning in the direction of the tiny voice, Brittany says _"Oh! Sorry. Your dad said I could come in. I came back to help. My brother totally made a mess in the kitchen like I thought. Is this your room or are you just putting stuff in here?"_ she rushes out._

"Chill chica."_ Santana says with her eyes a little wide.  
_

"Huh?"_ confused by the term.  
_

"Nothing"_ she says.  
_

"OK..."_ Brittany says stretching out the word...AWKWARD._

"Sooo...Wanna play?"_ asks Santana.  
_

"Sure. Are you done moving already?"_  
_

"The other stuff is too heavy and my mami is gonna unpack my stuff anyway."_ she says positively.  
_

"Right. Well come on."_ Brittany says walking back through the door but stops when she sees the older woman at the end of the hall.  
_

"Mami I'm going back outside."_ she says to her mom coming out of the master bedroom.  
_

"Hi!"_ Brittany greets sweetly.  
_

"This is Brittany from next door."_ Santana tells her mom.  
_

"Hi Brittany. You can just call me Mrs. Lopez."_ she says just as sweetly._

"Lopez...That sounds cool."_ Brittany says in awe but gets an odd look from Santana.  
_

_Mrs. Lopez just giggles at Brittany and tells Santana to stay in the yard as the girls make their way down the steps._

* * *

_The girls head outside to the front yard but Brittany stops and turns around to ask Santana a question._

"So your name is Santana Lopez?"_  
_

"Yep. My dad's name is Santino & My mom's name is Maribel. We're Hispanic."_ she explains._

"What's that?"_ Brittany has heard the word before but never knew what it meant. Now she has a reason to ask._

"Like when you speak Spanish & stuff."_  
_

"So you speak English & Spanish?"_ Brittany says clearly fascinated with this revelation. Santana nods at her but she continues _"But how? I only speak English."_ feeling a little sad that she doesn't speak other stuff too._

"I don't know. I guess I was just born like that."_ she says flatly not knowing how else to explain it. She's never really been asked that before.  
_

"Whoa. You must be like really smart then."_ Brittany says sort of amused  
_

"Yeah, I guess."_ Santana says going along with it.  
_

_Moving along...Brittany asks, _"So what do you wanna play? I got a basketball and football. Or we could ride bikes. Do you have one? My brother has one if you don't."_ she says offering._

"No I don't have a bike yet. My papi said he was gonna get me one after we moved here. I couldn't ride a bike at my old house anyway. Papi was scared It would get stolen or I get hit by a car."_ Santana explained.  
_

"Oh. Where did you move from?"_ Brittany asked interested.  
_

"Lima Heights Adjacent"_ she said.  
_

"Oh my gosh. You're from there. I heard about that place. My friend Mercedes use to live over there too. She said she hated it there because her parents always made her stay in the house. She said people there got guns too. But she only goes back there to visit family."_ she told Santana._

"Mercedes? I think I know her. But It's true. This one time my papi's car got stolen and they shot my window. After that, Papi said as soon as he makes enough money we were gonna move. And now were here."_ she finished.  
_

"Wow! Why they shoot your window?"_ Brittany said concerned.  
_

"I don't know."_ she replied really not knowing why.  
_

"Sounds scary."

"It was. I miss some of my friends but I'm glad I don't live there anymore. Kids would always try to fight me and I'd get my clothes dirty. This one boy kicked me in my stomach but I made him bleed too. Papi showed me how to hit a boy right in the nose to take him down. Oh and to kick between his legs too. But then my papi and that boys daddy started fighting because I beat him up."

"Geez. So you can fight?"_ amazed by this. _"I can fight too. Me & Brand always play fight."_ Brittany said.  
_

"Well yeah, but only If I have to. I don't like getting dirty. Plus my mami hates it. She says girls shouldn't play so rough."_ Santana said.  
_

"Oh. My Dad and brother are always playing rough. Sometimes we play football in the grass and we tackle my dad."_ she says happily.  
_

"You play football?"_ Santana asked a little surprised.  
_

"Yeah! Basketball, videos games & wrestling too."_ she says with excitement.  
_

"You play like a boy."_ Santana says straight up.  
_

"No I don't. I just play with my friends."_ Brittany retorts not really sure what she meant by that.  
_

"That's what boys do. Do you like Barbie's & makeup?"_  
_

"Eww...No. I hate Barbie's. And I'm too young for makeup. I got in trouble the last time I was messing with my mom's makeup anyway. I wrote all on the wall and the mirror with it when I was younger."_ Brittany recalled.  
_

"Makeup is for your face & dolls silly."_ she giggled at her.  
_

"But I didn't want it on my face."_ Brittany said seriously.  
_

"You're weird."_ Santana started.  
_

"No I'm not."_  
_

"Yes you are."_  
_

_Brittany was tired of going back & forth. Were they gonna ride bikes or not?  
_

* * *

"Well what are we gonna do? I'm bored."_  
_

"I don't know..."_ she replies sounding just as bored._

_Brandon comes running down the street with Sam & Puck towards the girls._

"Britt! Can you get my football out of the garage?"_ he asked out of breath._

"Be right back."_ Brittany dashes off real quick to get the ball from the storage container in the garage._

"Fresh Meat!"_ Puck says looking at Santana. _"What's your name girl?"

"None of your business!"_ she says disgusted_

_Sam laughs out loud at the two._

"Shut Up Sam! Hey Britt, Wanna play football?"_ he asks her ignoring Santana after being slightly embarrassed._

_As Brittany's walking back from the garage with the football, She turns down the offer. _

"Naw. I'm just gonna chill with Santana." _she says as she throws the ball to Puck._

"Santana? What kind of name is that?"_ asked Sam._

_Brandon & Puck start to laugh_

_Brittany punches her brother in the shoulder to get him to be quiet and says, _"Shut Up! I think It's a cool name."_ to Sam. She looks in Santana's direction and sees that she looks upset. Almost about to cry._

_Santana turns to leave but mumbles something she didn't quite understand on her way back up to her porch._

"Wait!"_ she calls out to Santana and she pauses _"Say sorry to Santana guys. That wasn't nice."_ she asked the boys._

"For what? I'm just saying It's a funny name."_ Sam reasoned._

_Frustrated by her friends she tells them, _"You know what just go and play football then."_ embarrassed by her friends and for Santana. _

"I'm sorry about them."_ Brittany apologized._

"Whatever. I can't stand boys. They're so stupid"_ she says sitting back down on her porch._

"They were just playing though. That's how they are."_ trying to explain their behavior._

"Well I don't like them."_ Santana responded with a straight face._

* * *

_Brittany just sighs...More awkward silence ensues. Not really knowing what to do or say next, They just sit there. Brittany is so confused by this girl. She seems nice but gets upset and moody easily. Maybe that's how people from Lima Heights Adjacent are. She remembered Mercedes being that way but at least she was funny. Santana is just mean. Even through all of that, she still wants to be her friend. There's something about the girl that she likes. Plus she speaks two stuffs. How cool is that? She thinks. She has long hair, pretty brown eyes, face like a Barbie doll. Kinda makes Brittany like Barbie dolls now. Well not really. She just like Santana's face. She looks over to her and sees her looking down at her shoes. Brittany thinks she's sad. She knows she would be too If her friends did that to her as well. Maybe Santana isn't that mean. She can't be. Not with a pretty face like that. Tired of the silence, Brittany begins to ask Santana If she wants to ride her & Brand's bikes or maybe even play with Barbie dolls. She'll do just about anything now to change her current mood. But before she can ask she hears Puck yelling..._

"Watch out!"_ he yells as the football comes towards them._

_Brittany turns right around just in time and catches the ball before it hits Santana in the face._

_Santana looks up frightened but shocked at the same time. _"Oh My God! How did you do that?"

"What? I just caught it."_ like it was no big deal._

_Sam, Puck & Brandon came running back down to Santana's yard._

"That was so cool."_ Puck says walking up to Brittany about to give her a hive five but out of nowhere here comes Santana charging at Puck._

"You did that on purpose!"_ she yells and pushes Puck down to the ground._

_Falling over, Puck yells, _"That wasn't even me! Sam is the one who threw the ball!"_ snitching._

_Then she charges for Sam and pushes him over too._

_Sam falls over and screams _"What the..."

_Brandon just looks on scared thinking he's about to get hit too. But before the boys can get back up and go at Santana, Brittany steps in the way._

"Hey! Everybody just chill out! It was a accident!"_ she screams._

_Both sides still trying to get at each other until Brittany asks for Brandon's help. _"Do something Brand!"_ He snaps out of it and tries to pull his boys back. _

_Brittany grabs Santana and they finally calm down a little. Just a little..._

"That chick is crazy man!"_ Pucks says in labored breaths._

"Puck chill."_ Brittany says not wanting them to get riled up again._

"Yeah I'm crazy but your estupido!"_ Santana says back._

"Guys come on. Calm down."_ Brittany pleads._

"No. Your friends are stupid Brittany."_ she repeats._

"Whatever man, Lets go."_ Sam says walking away._

_Puck grabs the ball that Brittany was still holding throughout all that shoving._

"Come on Britt."_ he says to her as the boys walk onto the sidewalk away from Santana's yard._

"Yeah go ahead with your stupid friends."_ Santana spits to Brittany. Obviously hurt and affected by the altercation._

_Britney looks back at her kind of shocked at her attitude towards her but says _"I don't want to."

"Well I don't want to play with you. I mean you dress like a boy, do boy stuff. Why don't you just go play with them?"_ Santana yells._

_Feeling hurt, Brittany looked down at her clothes and started to feel bad. She liked the way she dressed. She felt comfortable. She never thought twice about how she dressed until now. What was so wrong about the way she dressed? The way she played around, It would be pretty stupid of her to go out wearing dresses. Besides that, she really didn't care for them. She loved her cartoon shirts, torn jeans and sneakers. Starting to feel the tears well in her eyes, She just glared at Santana. Mad and sad at the same time. She couldn't deal anymore. She just turned around went to go play with the "boys"._

* * *

"Told you girls are loud & weird."_ Brandon said to his sister when she caught up to them._

"Dude, You do know that your sister is a girl right?"_ Sam laughed a little worried about Brandon's intelligence._

"She's Britt though."_ he deadpanned._

_"_Yeah Britt's just like one of the guys. Ain't that right Britt?"_ Puck says slinging his arm around Brittany's shoulders._

_Grabbing the ball from Puck she tells him, _"Shut up and go long."

_All three boys make their way up the hill and wait for Brittany to throw it._

_Santana is back in her house now. She runs up the stairs past her dad and goes in her room. She immediately flops on her bed face first in frustration._

_"What's wrong mija?" Santana's mom asks as she begins to unpack her boxes and fill her dresser._

_Santana just sighs, "Nothing." She soon gets up and walks over to her window to see If she can watch Brittany play from her window._

_Brittany took one last look at Santana's house. Not seeing her on the steps any longer she said "Welcome to the neighborhood" out loud turning back around. Talking to no one that could hear her but she was definitely talking to Santana. Oh the uncertainty!_

* * *

_What do you think? Should I continue?_


	2. Chapter 2

**AN**: I got a little carried away in this chapter. This Fic is really starting to have a mind of it's own. Hope you enjoy! Thank you in advance :)

* * *

**Chapter 2**

_It's been awhile after that fight with the boys but Santana & Brittany still haven't spoken. They would look at each other and look away. Sometimes Brittany would even look out of her bedroom window across to Santana's. She could see right into her room sometimes when she kept the blinds open. This day when she saw Santana, She was sitting on her bed Indian style. It looked like she was in deep thought with her chin resting on the palm of her hand. Now that she looked closer, It seemed that Santana had headphones in her ear. She wondered what kind of music Santana liked. Could she sing? Could she dance?_

"That would be so cool If Santana could dance."_ she thought. Brittany had a passion for dancing. Once classes started at the rec center, Brittany was gonna sign up for the Hip Hop dance classes. No one really knew about her love for dancing except for Brand. But that's only because he doesn't know the meaning of privacy or how to knock. He's caught her dancing to Britney Spears and other artists so many times. But other than him, no one knows because he never told._

"I do have to ask my parents about taking the classes and paying for it also. Maybe I could get a job."_ she game plans. _"Start cutting grass, washing cars, raking leaves in the fall, shoveling snow in the winter, Walking dogs. I could do it. Anything to dance."_ she says._

_Caught up in her day dream, She didn't even notice Santana get up from her bed and leave. _"Maybe she went downstairs or outside."_ Brittany thought to herself. Before she knew it, she saw Santana running back into her room and slamming the door._

"What was that about?"_ she says. Santana then flops down on her bed. _"She does that a lot I've noticed. That is one moody chick."_ Brittany says._

* * *

_Looking at the clock, It's almost noon._

"Forget this, I'm going outside."_ she walks out of her room down the steps to find her parents in the living room snuggled up. _"Where's Brand?"_ she asks them._

"Probably outside still running away from Mercedes."_ her dad told her. Brittany goes to stretch out across her parents on the couch with her head in her mom's lap._

"Britt sweetheart, you're getting too big to keep on doing this."_ her mom laughed at her while rubbing her head. Brittany relaxed at the touch. She loved her parents so much. She wondered If now would be the time to tell them about her wanting to take dance lessons at the rec when school starts back up in a couple of weeks. Deciding against it, she just settled for small talk._

"What are you guys watching?"_ she asked._

"Your mom is making me watch 'The Notebook'."_ her dad said sounding bored._

"Look we can watch 'Collateral' after this. Stop crying you big baby."_ Susan said easing her husband's mind._

_Brittany couldn't help but laugh at her mom teasing her dad._

"Oh you think that's funny kiddo?"_ he says beginning to tickle her sides._

_Not being able to take it, She rolls off on to the floor._

"Ben, be careful!"_ Her mother scolds._

"Oh she's alright! Britt's tough. Aren't you baby girl?"_ her asks._

"Yeah mom. I'm good."_ she says getting up. _"I'm going outside yall."

"OK."_ they said in unison. _"Be safe."_ her mother adds._

_But before she left, She had to get her dad back one more time. As soon as she created enough distance, She hit her dad in the shoulder and made a mad dash for the front door._

"I know where you sleep!"_ he yelled after her._

* * *

_Jumping down the steps into the yard, she looks both ways to see where her brother is. And sure enough, Mercedes had Brandon in a headlock. If Brittany didn't know the girl, She swears she would be over there in a second jumping on her back. But she's sure her brother deserves it, whatever it is that he did. She loved the kid, but he just doesn't know how to talk to girls. None of them do for that matter. But Puck's the worst. There's still hope for Sam & Brand though._

_Brittany debates on going up there but sees that walking to the rec to get some more info on these classes would be more efficient. _"On second thought, I'm taking my bike."_ she says thinking about that walk. She goes to the garage to get her bike and hears some strange noises coming from Santana's house. Looking through their kitchen window, she can see Mr. and Mrs. Lopez in what seems to be a heated argument. _"That must've been what had made Santana upset earlier."_ Brittany says to herself. She feels kind of bad for her. No one wants to see or hear their parents argue. She remembers the few times she came in on her parents having one. Not cool. It was usually about bills or Brittany's dad letting her and Brandon get away with stuff or being too rough. Nothing too serious though. Not that she knew of anyway._

_Finally getting her bike, she hops on it and pushed herself forward with her feet to the front yard. Flintstones style. Just as she's about to put her feet on the peddle and take off, she sees Santana sitting on her porch. Looking miserable, once again._

_She wants to say something to her given the current situation going on at her house but she hasn't been talking to her. Brittany feels If she were to say something to her, she would probably yell at her again. Just like she did that day she got mad at the boys. Her mom did say learn when to just leave people alone. Brand's obviously still learning to do that as she hears him screaming from the top of the hill._

_But back to Santana, Brittany thinks she's gonna take her mom's advice. They make eye contact for a brief moment and she swears she could see the pain in her eyes. For once she wasn't glaring at her, She was just plain sad. But when Brittany says brief, That's exactly what is was because she was looking down again._

_Pulling myself away from temptation, away from Santana, I continue on my way to the rec center._

* * *

_Riding down the sidewalk to the rec center, Brittany sees a familiar face._

"Is that who I think it is?"_ she says riding up onto the asphalt of the rec center court._

"Mike!"_ Brittany yells. The kid turns around at the sound of her voice. It's him. She hops off of her bike immediately and runs to him. _"What's up Chang?"_ she greets._

"Hey Britt. What brings you around here? Haven't seen you since school let out."_ Mike says._

"I just moved a few blocks over there in Lima Hills."_ she says pointing down the street and up the hill. _"We moved there when school let out for summer break."_ she continues._

"Oh OK. How's Brandon?"_ he asks._

"He's alright. He's outside around the neighborhood right now."_ Brittany says_

"Cool. So what's up, you came to ball?"_ Mike asks_

"No, I actually came to see about these classes." _she responds_

"Which ones?"_ Mike asks_

"The dance classes starting up soon after school starts."_ She informs him._

"You dance?"_ Mike asked in a shocked tone._

"Yeah."_ Brittany says  
_

"I dance too. That's crazy. I never knew that."_ he continues to say _"We should take some classes together. I was already thinking about doing community service here, Might as well take some classes too."_ Mike said thinking it made sense._

"Seriously? Let's do it."_ Brittany said very excited about her future in dance._

_Then it dawned on her. _"I don't even know how much it will cost. I still gotta get the info for my parents. I haven't even asked them yet."_ she says defeated_

"Can't be too much. It's just a class. Let's go check it out."_ Mike says walking towards the glass doors, pulling Brittany along with him._

"It should be on this board right here."_ he says walking towards it._

"Here it is."_ she says seeing 'Hip Hop' in bold colorful letters._

"$20 bucks per class? Is that a lot?"_ Mike inquires looking at the paper posted._

"I don't know. I never did this before." _Brittany says confused._

"They only have classes for 2 hours after school. 3 days a week. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays."_ Mike reads._

"If we went to every class, that would be like 60 bucks a week right?"_ she says._

"Pretty much."_ he agrees _"And about $240 a month."_ adding on._

_Getting a little bit sad, Brittany's starting think that she won't be able to go._

"I don't know If I'll be able to go. I would definitely have to get a job. What If my parents say no altogether?"_ Brittany worries._

"Hey. It doesn't hurt to ask."_ Getting a idea, Mikes says _"We're right here at the rec center. Look at all of these papers posted. There's gotta be a job somewhere on here. We could even post something ourselves."_ he said sparking ideas._

"You know what? You're right. And I could ask my neighbors stuff too?"_ Brittany says catching on. _"Mike Chang, you are the bomb!"_ she congratulates._

"I try, I try."_ Mike says brushing his fingers on his shirt._

_She laughs at his goofiness but gets serious to say _"First things first, Asking the parentals._"_

"You think they would be down."_ he wonders hopefully._

"I have no reason to think that they wouldn't but who knows. What about you?"_ she asks._

"Same as you."_ he replies back._

"Let's do it!"_ she says getting amped again _"Let's do it then!"_ he repeats_

"Wait, when do classes start?"_ she asks looking over the paper one more time._

"It says the third week of September."_ he answers_

"It will be September in a few weeks, Is that enough time to get the money?"_ she questions._

"We won't need the job or the money If we don't get permission first."_ Mike puts out there._

"True."_ she agrees._

"Now or never Britt."_ he states._

"Let me know how it goes. I should be back here tomorrow around this time."_ Brittany tells Mike._

"OK. Later Britt."_ he makes his way back over to the court._

* * *

_Brittany makes her way back to her house. One block before her neighborhood, she notices a girl jumping rope in her driveway. She looks nice. But thinking about it, Santana looked nice too at first she thought, as she remembered the girl. Before she can make it past the house, the girl actually speaks to her._

"Hey!"_ she says._

_Looking over at her again, I put my feet down to stop my bike. _"Hey."_ I say back._

_She runs up to me admiring my bike. _"Nice bike."_ she says with enthusiasm._

_Kind of taken back by this she says, _"Really?"_ shaking that off, I thank her._

"Thanks. Nice rope."_ Brittany says._

"I'm Quinn."

"Brittany."_ They shake hands._

"Do you wanna play?"_ she asks_

"Aww man. I really wish I could, But I'm on a mission right now."_ she explained._

"Sounds dangerous. What it is?"_ Quinn says intrigued_

"Not that kind of mission."_ Brittany laughs at the girl._

"Oh. Well what is it?"_ she ask still wanting to know._

"I'm gonna ask my parents If I can take these dance classes at the rec center down the street from here."_ Brittany tells her._

"You're a dancer?"_ Quinn asks._

"Trying to be."_ she says truthfully._

"Guess what? I'm a cheerleader. And I'm gonna be one when I get to middle school. You know we dance too."_ she informs Brittany._

"I heard about them. That's so cool."_ Brittany says getting interested._

"I know right."_ Quinn says happily._

"Hey, you can come with me to my house If you want. It's only a block that way."_ she points._

"Umm..."_ Quinn ponders._

"Are you allowed to leave your porch?"_ Brittany asks noticing the hesitation._

"Yeah. I just never went that way before."_ sounding nervous._

"Come on."_ she says assuring her._

"Wait, I gotta tell my nanny."_ Quinn says remembering._

"Nanny?"_ Brittany wondered what that was._

"The babysitter."_ she says._

"Oh! Where are your parents?"_ Brittany wondered._

"They're out of town on business. They do that sometimes. Well all the time, but whatever."_ Quinn just states._

_Brittany senses a change in Quinn's attitude after talking about her parents. She instantly feels sad and feels compelled to ask her was she OK. But she interrupted her thoughts saying _"I'll be right back."_ and in the house she goes. Not a moment later, she's back outside with Brittany._

"Ready Quinn?"

"Ready Britt!"

* * *

_Instead of riding her bike back, she walks it alongside Quinn so she can keep up with her. Walking back to her house, they talked about dancing, cheer leading and how similar they are._

"I'm also going to cheer camp the summer before high school."_ Quinn states as they reach Brittany's porch. She drops her bike in the grass and tells her she'll be right back. Brittany also noticed Santana was no longer sitting on her porch when her and Quinn walked by._

"Why am I still thinking about that girl?"_ Brittany thinks to herself. She exhales and goes into her Fridge when she enters the kitchen. She grabs 2 Capri Suns. One for her and one for Quinn. Sounds like her dad finally got to watch 'Collateral' unless the Mafia is having a shootout in her living room. She thinks It's best to ask them about the class when the movie is over so she goes back outside to Quinn._

_When Brittany goes back to her porch, Quinn is nowhere to be seen._

"Where did she go?"_ Brittany asks into the air._

"Hey Brittany!"_ she hears Quinn calling her name and turns towards where she hears the voice coming from. _"You've got to be kidding me."_ she calls out to invisible people. Brittany sighs and slowly makes her way down the steps. Totally dreading this journey over there but she halts when Quinn meets her halfway...Coming from Santana's porch, through Santana's yard after talking to...Santana. Brittany wished she just invited Quinn in instead of abandoning her on the porch._

"Here, I brought you a juice."_ she says holding it out to Quinn._

"Thanks."_ she says as she take it._

"Sure."_ Brittany said feeling eyes from across the yard on her._

"Oh. I found someone else for us to play with. Her name's Santana."_ Quinn chirps out motioning towards Santana._

"We've met."_ I said trying not to sound too dry._

"Did you know she likes cheer leading too? We're totally gonna be best friends. Come on!"_ Quinn says grabbing my hand._

"Wait."_ Brittany says stopping her. _"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Why? Oh are you worried about the whole Spanish thing. It's cool. I don't think she's racist."_ Quinn blurts out._

"No...Wait what?"_ Brittany bugs out confused. _"It's not that, It's just she doesn't really like me. Well mainly my friends. We really don't talk either."_ Brittany says honestly._

"Are you sure because she seemed pretty OK to me."_ Quinn voices not really connecting the dots._

"Yeah to you. She probably likes you because you're a girl."_ Brittany says to her._

"Last time I checked you were a girl too silly."_ she laughs at Brittany_

"That's what I thought but whatever. Not according to little Satan over there."_ she says._

"Wow. You guys really don't get along huh?"_ Quinn finally gets it._

"Nope."_ Brittany sees Santana looking over at her again. She's probably waiting for Quinn to come back. _"She's waiting for you, here."_ she places the other Capri Sun into Quinn's hand._

_Quinn looks back at Santana and back over to Brittany feeling torn. But Brittany didn't want to make her choose so she chose for her. _"Go have fun with Santana. I'm gonna go see what my other friends and little brother are up to before I head back into the house."_ Brittany says sadly._

"I didn't know you had a brother."_ Quinn says as Brittany starts to walk away._

"Yeah."_ she says over her shoulder to Quinn. Quinn calls her back but tells her _"Don't worry about it."_ and walks up the hills to find the "boys"._

* * *

_Not really having any other choice, Quinn walks back over to Santana on her porch._

"Well..."_ Santana eggs on. _"What did she say? Is she gonna come play with us? Where is she going?"_ she says like she was expecting Brittany's company._

_Quinn began to break the news to her. _"She said you guys didn't get along."_ Santana's shoulders fall in sadness. _"I even told her about the cheer leading thing. She didn't really seem to care." _Santana looks up the hill to Brittany's retreating form. _"Where is she going?"_ she asked._

"She said something about seeing her other friends and little brother. I didn't know she had a brother. Have you met him?"_ she asks then Santana nods._

"Anyways..."_ Quinn continues, _"Here, I think she wanted me to give this to you."_ handing her the juice. _"I think it was for me and her but I think when she found out I was hanging with you she decided to go."

_That made Santana feel even worse. _"Did she say anything else?"_ she asked looking for some kind of hope._

"Well she did call you 'little Satan'."

_Santana immediately became infuriated. _"She said that?"_ Not really believing Quinn's words._

"Cross my heart."_ Quinn says as she crosses her chest._

"Forget her then!"_ Santana said more upset than she was before._

"Oh my!"_ Quinn said with her hand over her heart._

"Come on let's go play Quinn. We don't need her or whatever she is."_ she spat out as she dragged Quinn in the house leaving the juice on the porch._

* * *

_Meeting up with her friends at the top of the hill, Brittany saw Brand, Puck, Sam and Mercedes._

"Hey girl!"_ Mercedes shouted to her._

"Hey."_ sounding a little down._

"What's wrong with you homegurl?"_ Mercedes asked Brittany noticing her current mood._

"Everything's alright."_ she says with a straight face._

"You sure?"_ Mercedes says not really convinced._

"Yes Mercedes."_ Brittany says with a half-smile._

"If you say so Britt."_ she answers back knowing something is wrong. _"I'm gonna head home. My legs hurt messing with yall fools today."_ she said walking off._

_Brittany looks at her brother and realizes how dirty he looks._

"Geez Brand! What happened to you?"

"Oh he's OK"_ Mercedes answers from the sidewalk. _"Ain't that right little Brandy?"_ teasing him._

_Brandon just shakes his head in defeat like he just lost a war._

"So what you guys been up to all day?"_ Brittany asks_

"Nothing much. Playing basketball & video games."_ Pucks answers_

_Sam jumps in saying _"Lil bro over here has been getting chased all day by his girlfriend."

_Immediately Brand charges at Sam and knocked him off the lawn chair he was sitting on._

_They wrestle for a while and Sam laughs it off to tell Brandon, _"Hey. Mercedes is gone man. I don't wanna wrestle with you."

_Pucks just sits back and laugh at them._

_Brittany picks up the knocked over chair that Sam was sitting in and relaxes in it._

_Puck takes notice of Brittany's mood too and asks If she's OK._

"Yeah, I'm good."_ she says for like the 100th time. _"Just thinking."

_By this time, Brittany thinks about going back to house to talk to her parents about the classes. Movie should be over by now. Not only that but she's starving. Time to go!_

"Later yall."_ Brittany says getting up._

"Where you going?"_ Brandon shouts at his sister._

"I'm hungry."_ She yells over her shoulder._

"Me too. Wait up!"_ Brandon daps up the boys and chases after his sister._

_When he catches up to her, Brittany says _"I'm thinking about asking mom and dad If they'll allow me to sign up for dance classes at the rec when school starts."

"For real? That's cool."_ Brandon says._

"You think so?"_ she asks him unsure._

"Of course. You're an amazing dancer Britt."_ Brandon says truthfully_

_That's all Brittany needed to put a smile on her face. She smiles so big at her little brother and wraps her arm around him as they walk down the hill together._

_Then she gets a idea..._

"Race you to the house!"_ and she takes off running. Brandon had no chance._

_Finally making it to the house Brittany falls into the grass and Brandon's right behind her screaming out _"Cheater!"

"I didn't cheat. Gotta be ready bro."_ Brittany says ruffling his hair like she always does._

* * *

_Brandon's the first to get up off the grass and go inside the house. She still lays there looking up at the sky for a minute. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees someone walking up to her. Now they're blocking her view. Expecting it to be Quinn...Not even. No such luck._

_It's Santana of all people. Why? What could she possibly want?_

"Can I help you?"_ Brittany says with no emotion._

_Santana stands over her looking down on her holding something in her hand._

"Yeah, you can take back your stupid juice."_ she says as she throws it right in Brittany's face. Right smack in the face hitting her on the lip._

_Shocked was an understatement. If Brittany cursed, she would gladly give Santana a mouthful. Instead she got up and yelled _"What's your problem!"

_Santana just gave her that famous glare and then turned around to walk away._

_Brittany was over it though. She picked the juice up and threw it right back at Santana's head. The girl turned around with quickness and charged at Brittany like a bull tackling her. Both girls just rolled around on the ground, pushing each other in the grass. After getting tired of fighting off Brittany, Santana gave in allowing herself to be pinned down. Brittany was out of breath too so she sat up a little off of Santana._

_Not expecting it but when Brittany eased up, Santana balled up her fist and punched Brittany right in the mouth. What a blow! This chick hits like a Baby Mike Tyson, is what Brittany's father would say. Falling off of Santana, she collects the blood that begins to pour from her lip._

"She hit me. She really hit me."_ Brittany thinks to herself not believing it._

"Next time watch who you're calling 'Satan' Chico"_ Santana says looking down at her after she gets up off the ground._

_Brittany realizes she's talking about her conversation earlier with Quinn. But she doesn't deny it as she too stands up, still holding her bloody mouth._

"Are you sure about that? Satan sounds pretty fitting to me you psycho."_ Brittany says as she spits blood at Santana's feet._

_Receiving another glare from Santana, Brittany doesn't hold back. _"No wonder you got into so many fights back home. Puck was right, you're crazy! The reason why you got into so many fights back home is because those kids probably couldn't stand you. All this time, you're talking about how bad Lima Heights Adjacent is, when It's really you that's bad. You're nothing but a bully."

_As the tears well up in Santana's eyes, She cowers but says _"You don't know me!"_ with as much venom as she could muster up to hide the pain._

"No, I don't. At one time I did want to be friends with you but now I can't even stand you. Now I know why your parents argue so much."_ At the mention of this, Santana looks up at Brittany not knowing she knew her parents argued. Then Brittany states so boldly saying to her..._

"It's because they have a bitch for a daughter."_ And with that, Santana was gutted. That was said with so much anger. Brittany didn't even know she had it in her._

_Wiping her lip again, she spits out more blood in front of Santana and says..._"Get out of my yard!"

_Brittany was officially done with her and turned around to go in her house, leaving Santana to pick up her face._

* * *

_Brittany rushes into the house hoping to not be seen by her parents. No such luck._

"Hey Britt. I was thinking about..."_ her mom began to say coming into the hallway but stopped when she sees how Brittany looked._

"Oh my goodness! Benson?!"_ Susan calls her husband._

"What happened?"_ her dad said coming into the hallway as well._

"OK..Don't freak out. It's just a cut."_ Brittany says trying to calm her parents down. Mostly her mom._

"Just a cut? Not with all that blood. What the hell happened to you? Let me see!"_ her mom says grabbing her hand._

"Mom! Stop..."_ she drags out but her mom has already taken her hand away._

"Jesus! How did this happen?"_ she interrogates._

_Her dad goes into the kitchen to the freezer for some ice._

"I'm alright. I was outside just playing around, rough housing."_ Brittany said not really wanting to mention Santana busting her lip. Her dad comes back with ice and hands it to her._

"How many times have I told you about that? You can't be playing all rough and stuff! You're not a boy!"_ Susan scolds_

_That's it. Brittany's had enough of this "boy" crap._

"Look I know I'm not a boy! I can't help the way I am! I like to play rough! I like sports! I like playing with boys and I like dressing like one sometimes to be comfortable! What's the big freaking deal?"_ Brittany blurts out at her parents. And they are just stuck._

_Taken back by her own words, she instantly apologizes to her parents._

"I am so sorry. I really didn't mean for that to come out like that. I'm just having a bad day. Well I wasn't at first but now I am."_ Thinking of Santana. _"I'm seriously OK though mom. Stop worrying so much. Thanks for the ice dad. I'll be going to my room now." _Brittany says as she runs up the stairs past her brother._

"What I miss?"_ he asks hearing the yelling that was going on. _"Oooh! What happened to you?"_ noticing her hand covered mouth and bloody shirt._

_She answered Brand saying, _"Nothing kid. Don't worry about it."

* * *

_Downstairs her parents are pretty much in shock._

"What just happened?"_ Susan says to her husband._

"Hey. She said she's OK. Just give her some time. She'll be alright."_ he says_

"You always say that."_ she says back_

"Because she will. She's tough. Come on."_ Benson says holding his wife walking her back to the living room._

"I swear these kids will be the death of me Ben."_ she says sadly._

* * *

_When Brittany reaches her room, The first thing she does is walk over to her window. She pulls her window down shut. Then she closes the blinds and pulls her curtains together blocking out all kinds of light. She doesn't even want to see Santana's window or look at her house. She's frustrated beyond belief._

_Lying back on her bed, Brittany thinks to herself _"So much for asking my parents about that dance class. I'm probably grounded now. I can't believe I just yelled at my parents. And I said the word "Bitch" outside. You know what, If I'm not grounded...I'm grounding my own self."

* * *

_Meanwhile back at the Lopez household_

"I need a vacation."_ Santino, Santana's father says as he walks out of the kitchen to the living room sipping on whiskey._

"You need a vacation? You need a vacation?! Oh give me a break!"_ Santana's mom begins to yell at her husband._

"Yeah, I need a fucking vacation from you!"_ He spat at her._

_Hearing them start all up again, Santana slammed her door...again. They seemed so together on the outside when they're around other people but they're putting on a front for friends and family. So fake. Once they're in the house, All hell breaks loose. It's not a everyday thing. But it happens too often. Santana's parents just can't stand to be around each other anymore. _

_This time she went into the closet and sat down pulling her knees to her chest. Then she wrapped her arms around her legs while trying to nurse her swollen knuckles from hitting Brittany. _"I think I have my father's temper."_ She admits to herself. But she never once witnessed him hitting anyone other than that boy's father that day. Just objects. Santana regretted punching Brittany as soon as she did it but couldn't take it back. Thinking back to all those things that Brittany said about her, she was beginning to wonder If they were true. Santana always had a certain attitude about her but now she was just angry all time since her parents started arguing. Thinking this move would make things better, but it didn't. Sighing to herself she says, _"You and me both dad. We both need a vacation."_ Now here come the tears..._

* * *

_...To be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: **This one is a little bit longer, Trying to wrap some things up so we can get on to the good stuff. Enjoy! :)

* * *

**Chapter 3**

_The next morning Brittany begins to stir in her bed as she feels a dip in her bed and something tap her arm slightly. She looks over to the touch and it's her mom. Brittany stretches and sits up already knowing why she's in her room._

"Good morning."_ her mother greets her with a concerned look on her face._

"Morning."_ she says back awaiting the scolding lecture._

"I want to talk to you about yesterday."_ she says._

"I figured."_ Brittany says looking up more comfortably._

"I wanted to talk to you last night after dinner but your father thought it would be best to give you some space."_ she says._

"Oh."_ she says waiting for her mom to continue._

"Sweetheart, you had me really worried about you after you blew up like that. I have never seen you react that way before. What was wrong?"_ her mother asks._

"Again mom, I am so sorry. I really didn't mean it. It's just..."_ she begins but doesn't know how to explain it._

_Susan moves closer to Brittany and places her hand on her leg encouraging her to go on._

_Continuing she says, _"It's just that things people say...Well just lately, it's been getting to me. I mean I never really paid attention to this stuff before but..."_ trying to find the words, _"...now it's just frustrating me."_ she finally gets out. _"That's why I blew up yesterday. I'm sorry."_ Brittany apologizes again._

_Her mom nods in understanding; she was a kid once too. She understands being frustrated. She still becomes frustrated as an adult. Wanting to get to the bottom of this, Susan asks what brought this on._

"What's getting to you exactly? What's being said? Is it kids?"_ she starts throwing out._

_"_Well yeah. I mean it's just certain things they say."_ Brittany starts off, _"Like this one kid didn't want to play with me because all I did was boy stuff. They said I dressed like a boy too. Then another kid said I was just 'one of the guys'. Even Brand says I'm not like other girls."_ she finishes with sadness and confusion._

"Brittany, Kids are gonna be kids. Don't let minor things get to you. It's OK that you like to play sports and do boyish things. I know I get on you sometimes about that but it's only because I want you to be careful. I don't want to see my baby girl getting hurt. Even your brother for that matter. You guys are my babies. It's in a mother's nature to be caring and protective of her children. Why do you think I always get on your father for being too rough with you guys?"_ thinking of her husband's childish ways, she laughs, _"You know I think even your father forgets you're a girl. I just think he gets too carried away sometimes. But that's probably one of the reasons why you're so tough. And that's a good thing sweetheart."_ her mother's says with certainty._

"It's not about you acting like a boy or playing sports. It's about your safety. Always has been and always will be my main concern. As far as how you dress, Who cares? Yes, I would like you to wear girly stuff more often but I honestly don't care how you dress." thinking about that she says, "Within reason of course. But I mainly want you to be comfortable. Don't worry about what other people say or think. As long as you're happy and you're being you, that's all that matters. That's all I could ever want for you. For you and your brother."_ Susan says with all of her heart._

_Brittany is so overwhelmed by her mother's words, she reacts by hugging her mother with just as much as love as she has shown her and given her. That's exactly what she needed to hear. _"Thank you so much mom. I love you."_ she says._

"I love you too sweetheart."_ Susan says enjoying every second of having her baby girl in her arms. Having to get serious for a moment, she says _"And don't you ever raise your voice at me like that again."

_Brittany tenses up for a moment and looks back up at her mother but starts to see her smile. _"It won't happen again."_ she promises._

"OK well let me get ready for work. These bills don't pay themselves."_ she says getting up off of the bed. She leans down to kiss Brittany on her forehead but on her way out, she's stopped by Brittany._

"Wait!"_ she blurts out and her mother stands still._

"There was something I wanted to ask you yesterday. Well you and dad actually."_ she says starting off._

"Yes."_ her mother says waiting for her to continue._

"Umm...You know that rec center over there?"_ Brittany says asking her._

"The Lima Hills Recreational Center? Yes."_ knowing exactly what she's talking about._

"Well I was wondering if I could take some dance classes there?"_ she asked hoping._

"Dance? Since when do you dance?"_ her mother asked confused._

"For a while now. I mean Brand knows but I didn't really do it outside of my room because I was a little shy. But now I wanna get out there and learn more. My friend Mike from school even dances too. He may go as well."_ she told her mother._

"And how much are these dance classes?"_ Susan questioned._

"20 bucks per class."_ Brittany says with a frown on her face not knowing if it was too high or not._

"Uh Huh..."_ she says thinking about it._

_Seeing that look on her face, Brittany decided to explain even further _"Yeah, 20 bucks a class. Each class is like two hours long and it's only 3 days a week. I mean that's if I want to go all three days. And the classes start a couple of weeks after school starts."_ she says_

"I need to talk to your dad about this because we still have to take you kid's school shopping."_ she says remembering._

"If it's the money. I'll get a job. They have these fliers posted at the rec center and I can do one of those. Or I can do yard work, walk dogs and wash people cars."_ Brittany says_

"You...Get a job?"_ her mom laughs looking at her daughter._

"Yes."_ Brittany says seriously._

_Seeing her daughter's seriousness, she asks _"You really wanna do this?"

"Yes."_ she says again with so much earnest._

_Her mom pokes her lips out and squints at Brittany before she smiles at her, then she says _"OK."

"What?"_ Brittany said back surprised._

"OK."_ she repeats. _"If this is really what you want to do then I'm fine with it. I'll talk things over with your dad and we'll figure it out."_ her mother says._

_Still in a shocked state, Brittany's mouth just hangs open. _"Oh My God!"_ she screams._

_She immediately jumps off of the bed into her mother's arms again to give her a hug repeating _'Thank you'_ over and over again. Susan welcomes the hug and tells her daughter _"Anything for my baby."_ with another kiss to the forehead._

"You know getting a job might not be bad either. I mean we'll still help you but things might get a little tight from time to time. You could even start saving up money to buy things for yourself or whatever you want to do."_ Susan says. _

_Brittany steps away from her mother and says _"I'll do anything. I'm just glad you said yes."_ she says satisfied._

_Susan just smiles at her. _"OK, I really have to get ready for work now. You guys behave today while we're at work. And make sure your brother takes them filthy clothes down to the laundry room. And no using the stove. You either make sandwiches or use the microwave."_ she says as she's giving out orders._

"Yes mam!"_ Brittany says as she salutes her mom. Her mom just giggles and makes her way out of the room to get ready for work._

_As soon as her mother leaves, Brittany hops back onto her bed with excitement. Just kicking and jumping with joy. Then she hops back off of her bed and runs to the window to open the curtains. Time to let some light into this gloomy looking room. Once she opens it, She looks out over to Santana's window. Remembering her lip, She touches the bruise._

* * *

_Over at the Lopez household, Santana is in the bathroom washing up and getting ready for the day. Brushing her teeth, she feels a slight pain in her knuckles and thinks about Brittany. Thinking back to yesterday and how everything played out between the two. _

"I can't believe she called me a Bitch."_ she thought kind of amused. _

_But remembering how it made her feel at the time, she feels sad again. Everything Brittany said to her starts coming back. What's crazy is that Santana thinks she's right. To some extent. To be so young, Santana has some serious anger issues and she knows it. The sassiest of attitudes. Even a little mean at times. That's not all she is though. There was at least some good in her. I mean she was able to make friends with Quinn easily. It was easy for her to make friends with Brittany too at first but things just went so wrong. How? _

_Santana blames those 'boys'. It's not that she doesn't like boys. She played with some in her old neighborhood. Even though they usually ended up fighting most of the time, They still played. But to her, Brittany's friends were mean. That kid with the Mohawk was rude. She didn't like how he was looking at her. Even the boy with the funny lips was being a jerk when he made fun of her name. Brittany's brother seemed OK. But Santana thinks Brittany's brother didn't stand chance If he kept hanging out with those two idiots. It confused Santana how someone as nice as Brittany seemed to be, would even hang out with boys like. But who was she to talk. _

_Finishing up in the bathroom, Santana goes to her room to get dressed. Her mom pops in a little while later to ask what she's gonna do today._

"Mija, What are you doing today?"_ Her mother, Maribel asks._

"I don't know. Probably hang out with Quinn. She did say she was gonna come over again yesterday before she left."_ she answers._

"I thought her name was Brittany."_ she said confused._

"No. Brittany is the neighbor next door. Quinn lives down the street."_ she says explaining._

"Oh. Well anyways, I gotta go in to work at the bank for a few hours since someone called out. I should be home before it gets dark though. But you should be in the house way before then."_ she says sternly. _"I don't even like leaving you home alone by yourself like this."

"Mom, I'll be 11 next month."_ Santana reminds her._

"And what is that supposed to mean? You're still a young girl and it's not safe. I know we moved out of a bad area but bad things can still happen."_ she says._

"Whatever. Where is Papi?"_ she asks her mom._

"I don't know. Probably at work. He was gone when I woke up this morning."_ Maribel said like she didn't care._

_Santana just shakes her head. _"It's only a matter of time."_ she thinks to herself._

"Anyways, there's some leftover Chicken and Rice in the fridge so heat that up for lunch if you want. I'll cook when I get home."_ and with that, she was gone._

* * *

_Brittany and Brandon played videos games together for most of the morning until she remembers she's got to meet up with Mike at the rec center. _"Shoot!"_ she says hopping up._

"What?"_ Brand asks_

"I gotta go meet up with Mike at the rec center to tell him what mom said."_ she explains._

"Mike Chang?"_ she nods at his question. _"For what?"_ he says not understanding why he needs to know._

"Mike's gonna be taking the classes with me too."_ Brittany says._

"Oh!"_ he says as it starts to make sense. _"Didn't know he danced."

"Me either. Wanna go?"_ asking Brandon._

"Naw. I'm not going anywhere until I beat this thing."_ he said returning to the game._

"Let me get your trash then."_ she says trying to throw away the stuff from before when they had breakfast. He passes it in a hurry so he doesn't mess up._

"I'm out."_ she shouts over her shoulder. _"Don't touch the stove and lock up If you leave."_ she tells him._

"Yeah Yeah."_ Brandon says not taking his eyes off of the screen._

* * *

_Brittany leaves out the backdoor to go to the garage and grabs her bike. Making her way up the side of the house, she sees Quinn walking up towards Santana's house. _

"Brittany!"_ Quinn calls out from Santana's porch after noticing her reach the sidewalk. She runs down the yard to Brittany and sees her bruised lip._

"Whoa! What happened to your lip Britt?"_ Quinn asked worried._

_Being reminded once again of her fat lip, she sighs, _"Oh It's nothing. Got hit with a football."_ she lied...again._

"Goodness! Does it hurt?"_ she asks._

"Not really. Only if you touch...Don't touch it!"_ Brittany says quickly covering her mouth as she sees Quinn bringing her hand up to touch her lip._

_She retracts her hand and asks _"Well did you put something on it?"_ being motherly._

"Yes mom."_ she answers._

_Quinn just shakes her head at Brittany like a concerned mother too. _"You need to be more careful Britt."_ she says_

_Brittany just laughs at her but continues the conversation._

"Hanging out with Santana today."_ said more as a statement than a question. Obviously she is since she walked up to her house and was just on her porch._

"Yep. She just called me to come over after her mom left. We're probably gonna do some cheers today to cheer her up."_ she said._

"Cheer her up?"_ Brittany thinks to herself. Brittany doesn't understand why she would need to be cheered up. Look at her lip. But she forgot Quinn doesn't know the real reason behind her deformed lip._

_Looking back at her door _"I rang her doorbell, I wonder what's..."_ but before she can finish, she sees Santana stepping out. _"Oh hey Santana!"_ Quinn says cheerfully._

_Brittany looks up to Santana's direction and makes eye contact with her._

_Santana stops at the first step on her porch when she sees Brittany...and her fat lip._

"Whoa. I did that?"_ she thinks to herself. Starting to feel bad again._

_Not really feeling like standing around any longer, Brittany says bye to Quinn._

"Later Quinn."_ she says hopping on her bike to go._

"Where you going?"_ she asks._

"Back to the rec to meet my friend Mike. My mom said I could go to the classes and Mike's going to take them with me. Well hopefully he is if his parents said yeah."_ she explains._

"Sweet!"_ she says genuinely happy for Brittany._

"Later."_ she says again and rides towards the rec to meet Mike._

"Bye."_ she calls out as she leaves. Then turns around and runs up to Santana._

* * *

"That's one tough girl."_ Quinn says sitting down._

"Who? Brittany?"_ she asked confused._

"Yeah. Did you see her lip?"_ she asked_

"Oh yeah."_ she said remembering Brittany's lip looked and looked down at her feet._

"That is exactly why I don't play sports. Especially Football. I suck."_ she mentions._

"What does football have to do with it?"_ she wondered._

"That's how her lip got busted. She said she was playing football when it happened. I guess the girl can't catch either."_ Quinn said._

_Santana frowned at this. _"Football?"

"Why did she lie about how her lip got busted?"_ she thought to herself._

"Did she not want anyone to know it was her? Was she embarrassed? I wonder what she told her parents."_ all of this ran through her mind at once. Santana knows for a fact that Brittany can catch a football. She saved her face from that flying bullet the first day that she met her. _"So why lie?"_ she thought again._

_Interrupting her thoughts, Quinn asks her _"Why did you sound so sad when you called me earlier?"

"Oh. Just family stuff. You know how parents can be."_ she says._

"I guess. I don't really see mine much. They're always out of town on business and stuff."_ Quinn says sadly._

_Looking up at her, Santana notices her new friend has 'mommy and daddy issues' too with how her mood just changed. They just may have even more in common._

_They sit there, comparing their stories and talking about their parents for a while until they're tired of it._

_Quinn grabs Santana's hand so they can go play in the yard but she snatches her hand away in pain._

"Ouch!"_ Santana says holding her hand._

"I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"_ she apologizes as she examines her hand._

"I sort of hurt my hand yesterday."_ she says but not explaining how._

"Brittany's got a messed up lip and you got a messed up hand. You girls are a mess."_ Quinn just shakes her head walking in the grass._

"I know."_ Santana laughs. But it's not out of humor. It's out of guilt._

* * *

_Arriving to the rec center, Brittany doesn't see Mike. _

"Maybe he's not here yet."_ she thinks. _"I guess I'll just wait around here."_ she says to herself. Brittany rolls her bike over to the benches by the basketball court and sits down. A game already taking place has her attention._

_She watches the game in awe. This one kid in particular is good. _"Really good."_ she says in amazement. He just crossed over two people back to back and made a layup with ease. Then he starts to break out in this little victory dance._

"What the..."_ Brittany stares. _"He can dance too!"_ she says in her mind. The kid just broke out some sick hip hop moves. _"Was that 'The wop' he just did?"_ she says to herself amazed._

_She's taken out of her daze when the ball rolls up and hits her bike tire. She reaches down to grab it and hears _"Ball up."_ from the kid that just did the layup. She tosses him the ball as he walks over to her._

"Thanks. Nice bike."_ he says to her._

"Thanks. Nice moves."_ she says back to him._

_He smiles at her and says, _"Thanks. I'm a beast out on this court."

"I was actually talking about your dancing but you can ball too."_ Brittany says._

"Oh."_ he says and laughs a little. _"I can do a little something on the dance floor too."

"My mom is always having house parties so I'm always dancing. When I was younger she would wake me up after my bedtime to come and dance for the grown folks so I could show off my dance moves."_ he said recalling the memory._

"Sounds fun. I dance too. Gonna be taking some hip hop dance classes here soon."_ she tells him._

"That's what's up. I use to go last year. You'll have fun."_ he says_

"I can't wait."_ Brittany says anxiously._

"You hoop?"_ he asks._

"I can do a little something."_ she says being modest._

"Well let's go then."_ he says inviting her. _"I'm Jake by the way. Jake Puckerman."_ holding out his hand._

"Brittany Pierce."_ she says taking it. _"Wait! Puckerman? I got a friend named Puckerman. His name is Noah though."_ Brittany tells him._

"Noah? That's my brother."_ Jake says._

"Really? How come I've never seen you before."_ she questions._

"We don't live together. Same dad, Different moms."_ he explains._

"Oh!"_ she says understanding._

"Yeah. One of those."_ Jake says not really wanting to go into detail about their situation._

"Check Ball."_ he calls out as he walks to the free throw line. After she checks the ball they begin to play one on one._

_After about 2 games of 21...They call it quits. Both each winning one game._

"You're good Pierce."_ Jake says out of breath._

"Thanks Jake."_ she says trying to catch hers. _"Hey, what was that dance you were doing earlier?"_ Brittany says mimicking him._

"Oh the 'the wop'? Yeah that's it."_ he says admiring her dancing skills._

"Thought so. Just wasn't sure. Are you gonna be taking the classes again this year?"_ she asks him._

"I don't know yet. Maybe so."_ he says back._

"Well I hope you do. My friend Mike might be going as well. I was actually supposed to meet him here."_ Brittany says._

"Asian Mike?"_ Jake asks._

"Yeah I guess so."_ she answers._

"Mike Chang?"_ he says again._

"Yeah him."_ she says for sure._

"That's my homeboy. We usually ball together. He got some dance moves too."_ Jake says._

"I never seen him dance before. He just told me."_ Brittany says._

"Speak of the devil."_ he says looking behind her._

"Mike!"_ Jake shouts out._

_Mike walks over to the two. _"What's up? Hey Britt. Whoa!"_ he says looking at her lip when he daps up Jake._

"Football."_ She says not caring to explain any further._

"Oh."_ he says._

"I was gonna ask but I didn't want to put you on the spot."_ Jake says._

"Yall know each other?"_ Mike asks._

"Just met actually. We were playing ball and we were just talking about the class."_ she say to Mike._

"Oh yeah. So what your folks say?"_ Mike asks._

"My mom actually said yes."_ Brittany tells him with a smile. _"Yours?"

"They don't really want me to. They would rather I be studying or doing something more productive instead. But...They gave me permission. They're just not paying for it."

"So what you gonna do?"_ she asks Mike._

"I was thinking about helping out at my family's restaurant on the weekends or days that we don't have class. But I probably won't be able to go to class as much. Don't know how much money I'll be making."_ he says._

"I gotta get a job too. But my mom also said that she and my dad would try to help me."_ Brittany told him._

"Oh."_ Mike says_

"Yeah."_ she says feeling a little tired. _"I'm gonna go. I'm tired guys. See you around Jake."_ she says about to walk off._

"Hey Pierce. Let me get your number so when can keep in touch."_ he says pulling out his cellphone._

"You got a cellphone?"_ she asks Jake._

"Yeah. Prepaid though. Gotta deliver newspapers just to keep it on."_ he says giving her the phone._

"Cool."_ she takes the phone, putting in her number. _"Gotta get me one too. As soon as I get my job."

_Brittany hands him the phone back. _"Later."

"Bye Britt."_ Mike says and Jake just waves._

_Brittany walks over to her bike, Hops on and rolls out._

* * *

_Feels like it took her forever to get home. It was a short bike ride, but she was going so slow because the game with Jake wore her legs out. When she got closer to her house, she decided to hop off and roll it the rest of the way. Looking over, she seen that Santana was sitting on her porch by herself. She wondered If Quinn finally got tired of her or did Santana try to punch her too? _

_Their eyes connected once again. _

_It looked like Santana wanted to say something but she wasn't too sure. She watched her look down at her hand and rub at her knuckles. Then she looked back up. Brittany thought she was thinking of punching her again. That's what that gesture told her. But she really couldn't read her face. She didn't look mad, angry or upset. Not even sad. She was just staring blankly._

"Weird."_ Brittany thought as she kept walking past._

"Brittany."_ she heard coming from Santana's direction and stopped._

_Turning around she saw Santana standing up and walking towards her._

_Then Brittany heard someone else calling her name in the other direction so she looked over there._

_It was Mercedes walking towards her. _"Hey girl!"_ she says finally making it in front of Brittany._

"Damn Gina!"_ Mercedes practically yells at her like Martin Lawrence would do on his TV show when she sees her lip. _"What happened to your face?"_ she asks so animated._

_Then Mercedes says "Santana."_

_Shocking Brittany, her eyes go wide. _"How did she know?"_ she asks herself. She probably told her. Santana would be the type to go bragging about punching somebody in the mouth._

"I guess she didn't want anything."_ Mercedes says._

"Huh?"_ Brittany asked confused._

"Santana. She was right behind you."_ she says._

_Brittany looks back just in time to see Santana's door close. _

"So what attacked your face?"_ Mercedes asked again._

"Oh. I was playing football and the ball hit me in the face."_ she explained but lied again. _

"How did you let that happen? You're better than the boys at catch. You slipping boo."_ she said walking to Brittany's porch._

"I guess I wasn't paying attention."_ Brittany said._

"Obviously!"_ Mercedes said to her pointing at her lip. _"Where your brother at?"_ she asked._

"Probably at Puck's or Sam's."_ she told her._

"That boy ain't been there all day. I just came from there."_ Mercedes says._

"Still must be playing video games then. That's what he was doing the last time I seen him."_ she says._

"So what's up with you and Santana?"_ she blurts out._

"Where did that come?"_ Brittany says to herself caught off guard. _"What do you mean?"_ she says._

"The boys told me what happened."_ she clarifies. _"Puck said she spazzed out on yall."

"She did."_ she says cosigning what Puck said. _

"That's Santana for you."_ Mercedes says simply_

"What's her deal? You know her from the old neighborhood right?"_ Brittany asks trying to gain some insight on the troubled girl._

"Yeah. We weren't really that close as friends. But I knew of her. We just had different cliques."_ Mercedes says._

"Oh."_ she says._

"Yeah. I blame her parents."_ Mercedes starts._

"For what?"_ Brittany questions._

"For the way she be acting. For one, all her folks do is argue. People talk honey. Everybody knows everybody's business in the hood. And they just made it easier with all that yelling they be doing. I remember one day I was walking past her house, all I heard was yelling and glass breaking. I swear they was throwing down in there."_ Mercedes says making Brittany want to hear more._

"Her dad was always getting into it with the older kids in the neighborhood. It was usually about them not respecting his property and throwing trash in his yard. I think that's why they shot his house up and stole his car."_ she says_

"She told me about that."_ Brittany said remembering her conversation from when they first met._

"That man got a temper too girl. Don't let anybody hit or touch his baby girl. He be on them boys quick. I heard he beat up some boy's father after Santana had already beat the little boy up. I don't know if they were tag teaming or what."_ Mercedes said._

"Jesus!"_ Brittany says out loud. _

"What about her mom?"_ she questioned._

"What about her? I mean I guess she's OK. Never really saw her too much outside of the house. She wasn't causing any trouble. The most I would see her do is sit outside on the porch with a glass of wine. Other than that, I don't know."_ Mercedes says not being able to come up with anything else._

"You know some of the kids thought that she was bipolar."_ she continues._

"Who?"_ Brittany asked._

"Santana!"_ she says like _'Duh! Who else.'_ kind of tone._

"What's that?"_ she asks._

"It's one of them diseases where someone is acting all nice and normal one minute, Then out of nowhere they start tripping and slashing up peoples tires."_ she says trying to explain._

"That's crazy. But I guess that makes sense."_ Maybe that's why Santana hit her she thinks. Definitely crazy for that._

"But Yeah, She cool though."_ she deadpanned._

"What!"_ Brittany says to herself, _"After all that you just said, you think she's cool?"_ she asks Mercedes._

"Well yeah. I ain't never had no problems with the girl. She cool."_ she says in all seriousness._

"It's probably because you're a girl."_ Brittany tells her._

"Huh?"_ Mercedes says confused._

"Nothing."_ she says._

"Anyways, I'm gonna go girl. I'm hungry and I'm trying to catch them Fresh Prince reruns. I'm out."_ And there she goes._

* * *

_After Mercedes leaves, Brittany puts her bike up and goes inside to check on her brother. Walking into his room she sees him on his game chair. _

"You still playing video games?"_ she asks._

"Duh!"_ he responds not looking up at her._

"You have no life."_ she says shaking her head at him._

"Whatever."_ Brandon says._

"You eat?"_ Brittany checks._

"Sandwich and Chips."_ he says._

"That's it?"_ she asks thinking he would have eaten more._

"What else was there to make? I can't cook."_ he says back to her._

"I hope you cleaned up after yourself."_ she says not wanting her mother to get on her again._

"Yes."_ he said feeling like he was being nagged._

"OK well I'm gonna go eat something and take a nap."_ Brittany tells Brandon but asks him one more thing. _"Hey did Puck ever mention he had a brother to you?"

"Yeah. I think he said his name was Jake."_ he said trying to remember._

"Oh. I met him today. Cool dude."_ she says after getting confirmation._

"Don't let Puck hear you say that."_ he lets her know._

"Why?"_ she asks not understanding._

"Their folks don't get along."_ Brandon states._

_She thinks about asking more questions but decides against it and heads to the kitchen._

* * *

"What am I gonna eat?"_ she thinks as she looks into the fridge. She grabs a few things but ends up putting it back. She doesn't have the patience for anything that will take too long._

"I'm just gonna heat up these pizza bagels."_ Brittany says grabbing those and throwing them in the microwave. When those are done, she grabs 2 Capri Suns and makes her way upstairs to eat._

_Brittany tore them pizza bagels up once she got comfortable in her room. She ate like someone was gonna take her food away. Crushing both juices and doing away with the trash, She laid back down. Nap time! And she was out like a light._

* * *

_A couple of hours go by..._

_Brittany is still sleep. She must have been really exhausted after that game and eating that food. Her rest is soon interrupted when she hears a noise. Opening her eyes, She looks by the window and sees that the sun is about to set. Must be late. Her parents should be home by now. She hears that noise again. _

'knock knock'

_It's someone knocking at the door. Since when do they knock? Her parents don't knock because they _"pay the bills"_. At least that's what her mom told her the last time she busted in on her. And Brandon definitely doesn't knock. But that's just because he's rude._

"Come in!"_ she says waking up fully._

_After rubbing her eyes, She looks over towards her door as it opens. When she removes her hands from her eyes, she sees the last person she ever expected to be walking in her room._

"Hey."_ Santana says shyly as she walks into Brittany's room. Turning around to shut the door back, she stands there for a second starting to regret coming over but couldn't quite leave. Exhaling she turned back around and found Brittany's eyes staring right into hers._

_Santana never really paid any attention to her eyes before but they were so blue. The kind of blue that would hypnotize you. Sort of cute in a way she thought._

"How did you get in here?"_ asked Brittany, still not believing this girl was in her room. _"Did you break in my house?"_ she accuses. _

_Brittany thinks she must have. She's from the hood. Probably knows how to pick locks and everything. _

"Your mom let me in."_ Santana tells her._

"Why would she do that?"_ she asked swinging her legs off the side of the bed._

"I don't know. I honestly didn't think she would since I..."_ Santana stops not being able to finish._

"Since what? Since you busted my lip?!"_ Brittany says with a little anger now getting up off of the bed._

"Well yeah."_ she said backing up a little. Then turned to walk around the room. _

"I never told them."_ she reveals to her._

_Santana looks back to her with a frown._

"I never told them it was you that busted my lip."_ she repeats adding on._

"Why?"_ Santana asked not understanding why she wouldn't._

"Does it matter?"_ Brittany asks._

"Maybe"_ she says but changes it to _"Yes. Yes it does matter."_ she says hoping for an answer this time._

"I didn't see the point. All my mom was going to do was go over to your house. Maybe fuss at you and your parents for no reason. Causing drama between neighbors that is not needed. I was just trying to keep the peace around here. Or whatever peace you would allow. I wasn't trying to get you into trouble."_ Brittany says_

"So you were protecting me?"_ she asks trying to understand Brittany's reasoning because she remembers she lied to Quinn earlier._

"No. For what? I just said I wasn't trying to get you into trouble. That's all."_ she repeats._

"You're a strange girl Britt."_ Santana said seeing through Brittany._

"Excuse me."_ she said feeling teased._

"Being nice when you have no reason to be. You could have told the truth. Why lie? I know I would not have lied for me. Was it because you were embarrassed?"_ Santana asked trying to get a more straight answer._

"No."_ she scoffs at her._

"I don't get it."_ Santana says._

"There's nothing to get."_ she fights back._

_Dropping it for now, Santana looked around, Taking notice of the things in her room. She walked over to her laptop and saw a "Sweet Valley High" DVD next to it. She loved this show. She then looked above her bed and saw a Britney Spears poster._

"Fan of Brittany Spears too I see."_ Santana mentions and smiles._

_Brittany's eyes go to where she's looking above her bed and then back to Santana. _"Is that a smile she sees?"_ Brittany thinks to herself as she frowns. She would have smiled too If she wasn't confused or still wondering why Santana was here in the first place. _

_Getting tired of waiting, She walks over to Santana when she sees her looking at her CD collection. When she gets right behind her, she spins her around._

"Is there any point to you being over here right now? Last time I checked, you couldn't stand me."_ Brittany says pointing to her lip. _"Me and my friends for that matter. But here you are, in my room, snooping."_ Brittany says waiting on an explanation._

"Yeah about that. That's why I'm here. I was going to say something when I saw you earlier but Mercedes showed up. I went back in the house and did a little more thinking afterwards. Just had a lot going through my mind. Trying to make sense of this...Of myself."_ she says._

_Santana walks around Brittany to sit on her bed and looks out the window. Looking out of Brittany's window into her own window to her room. She never really paid attention to that before until now. She starts talking again when she feels Brittany sit beside her on the bed._

_Looking at her she says, _"My parents just got home not too long ago and I had to get out of there for some air. I looked over to your house when I got to the porch and saw your mom walking up the steps. My legs had me walking across the yard to your porch and by the time I realized what I was doing it was too late. But I needed to be here."_ Santana says._

_Brittany just stares at her still waiting for the reason. Then Santana says..._

"I'm sorry Brittany."_ she finally get outs. It only took her a year._

_Brittany doesn't really have the words to express how she feels or what to say to that. She just knows that it was unexpected. Everything with this girl is unexpected. She just has this blank expression on her face._

_Going on, Santana says _"I'm sorry for hitting you and busting your lip. I'm sorry for the way I've been acting and what happened with your friends. I'm sorry for the things I have said. I'm even sorry for being a bitch. I'm sorry for everything."_ she finishes._

_At the mention of the "B" word, Brittany is torn from her bewildered state._

"Wow!"_ is all that Brittany can get out in that moment. What is going on here? This is not real life. Did Santana just apologize? Brittany can't believe this._

_Standing up from Brittany's bed, she looks out of the window again to see it getting darker outside. _

"Think I'll be heading home now."_ Not really wanting to go home though. Not back there. She would rather stay here actually. Seems so cozy. It has that "happy home" feeling to it. _

_Santana thinks Brittany's lucky but she's happy for her. _

_Turning back to her, She walks up to her and Brittany stands. Santana reaches her hand up towards Brittany's face but she flinches a little and backs into the bed._

"I'm not gonna hit you."_ Santana says softly._

"I know. I'm not scared of you."_ Brittany tells her but you can't tell with the way that her voice is cracking._

"I know. You're tough right?"_ Santana states not expecting an actual answer. She's telling Brittany she's tough because Santana knows she is. She only wishes she could be as tough as her. There's a lot she can learn from Brittany she thinks. No. She knows she can._

_She touches Brittany's lip softly with the smooth caress of her thumb._

_Brittany instantly feels chills all over her body with that light touch. _

"Does it hurt?"_ she asks Brittany with concern looking at the bruised lip._

_Not trusting her voice right now, Brittany just shakes her head no. She doesn't even think she can feel her face right now. _"What is this feeling? Wait. Where is my feeling? Why can't I move? I'm stuck."_ Brittany panics to herself._

_Santana retracts her hand and puts it back down to her side. Moving away from Brittany, she exhales one more time. Gotta go sometime, so she decides to just go now._

"Later Britt."_ Santana says, then she turns around and leaves Brittany's room to go back home._

_Brittany finally let's out the breath, she didn't even know she was holding in those last few moments._

"What in the hell was that?"_ Brittany breathed out holding her chest and then touching her lip._

* * *

_After a while, she gains her bearings back and Brittany looks out of her window into Santana's room. She watches the girl in confusion. Brittany really doesn't understand her but also finds her interesting at the same time. What was that, that took place just a few moments ago? Brittany is still at a loss for words. Staring, she sees Santana sitting on her bed and cover her ears. _

_Then a second later, she gets up and slowly slides down her bedroom door. Hanging her head down in sadness. Looks like she's crying now. When she lifts her head back up, _she wipes her eyes.

"Yep. She's definitely crying."_ Brittany says starting to feel sympathy for her. Maybe even something more. But she doesn't know what to call it or how to even put it in words. But she feels it._

* * *

_Lopez Household_

"Why didn't you wake me up to tell me you were leaving this morning?"_ Maribel asks her husband._

"I didn't see the point in waking you up."_ he said in a nonchalant tone._

"Where did you go?"_ she continued._

"To work. Where the hell else would I go?"_ feeling like he was being grilled._

"I don't know, you tell me. What time did you leave?"_ she questioned further more._

"Does it matter?"_ responding with an attitude._

"Yes!"_ she says like _'of course it does'

"I left at 5am this morning."_ Santino states with annoyance._

"You could have said bye at least."_ she says._

"Oh so you can rip my head off for interrupting your sleep? You know how you are!"_ he quips back. _"I don't have time for all that so early in the morning. I woke up, Got ready for work and went about my damn day. Somebody has to work around here."_ he finished off before making his way to the dresser._

"What's that supposed to mean?"_ she says in astonishment._

"Nothing."_ he says trying to end the conversation._

_Maribel getting worked up says, _"Don't say nothing! Are you insinuating that I don't work!"_ she says with attitude._

"No. I know you do, but not as much as you should."_ he says still trying to end this._

"Excuse me!"_ she yells_

_Giving in, he goes off, _"Ever since you became pregnant, I've been taking care of this whole family. As soon as I found out you were pregnant. I got a job. When your parents found out and said we should get married and do things the right way. I did. I married you. When Santana was born, I'm the one who got us an apartment. I did all this while trying to go to college. I even helped you get your first car. And now, this brand new house because it was beginning to be too dangerous in the old neighborhood to raise Santana. So excuse me! I have to work these crazy odd hours and long shifts so I can make sure we keep this damn house and pay all of our bills."_ he huffed out._

"The nerve! You think I had it easy too? I worked when I could. I was busy taking care of your child while you worked. Taking care of a child is a job in itself. I'm the one that had to keep putting off school until she was old enough for daycare. At least I tried!"_ yelled back._

"What about after she started school? You still barely worked."_ he countered back at her._

"I can't deal with you right now. Get out of my face!"_ she said dismissing him._

"Fine by me!"_ Santana's dad leaves the master bedroom and when he shuts the door, Maribel throws something at it. Whatever it was, it was glass and it clearly broke. _

_Shaking his head in frustration, he heads downstairs to the living room to watch TV. He's probably gonna be sleeping down there as well._

_Throughout all of this, Santana sat on the floor with her back against her bedroom door hearing the whole argument. The more they argued, the more they drifted apart. The more she listened, the more she understood. She knew her parents loved her. There was no doubt in her mind. What she had come to realize is that it was her parents that didn't love each other. At least not anymore. Argument after argument she heard, it led her to believe that her parents only got married because her mom got pregnant with her. And even now when they can't stand each other, they're only staying together because of her. That's the only explanation Santana can come up with after all she's heard. But why live together miserably? Why make her miserable with the constant arguing? Why couldn't her parents be like other parents? Is she to blame for her parents unhappiness? _

"Why do I feel like a mistake?"_ Santana says as she cries alone to herself but watched by sympathetic eyes._

* * *

_...To be continued  
_

* * *

**AN: **Things might be turning around for Santana & Brittany in the next Chapter.

What do you think might happen?

**STAY TUNED! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** Welcome Back! Still trying to move things along so we can get to the Romance of the Brittana. Don't worry It's coming soon. Just felt it was necessary to tell the beginning of their friendship. I thought that would help explain behaviors and situations in the future better than doing flashbacks.

You know I always wondered what Brittana were like as children from the shows aspect. Anyways, I digress. **Enjoy! R&R :)**

* * *

**Chapter _4_  
**

_School is starting soon so The Pierce's take their kids to the mall for clothes and supplies. Brittany and her mother are currently at a clothing store going through some racks while her father and brother are visiting the GameStop. _

"Hey Britt, come look at this."_ her mother calls._

_Walking over, she says _"So what do you think about this?"_ holding up the outfit._

"Really mom?"_ Brittany says looking at the outfit like it has a bad odor._

"What? It's cute."_ she says._

"Cute for who? Shirley Temple?"_ Brittany jokes._

"I tried."_ her mother says putting it back. _"Is your father back yet?"

"No. They're still looking at games."_ she says._

"I swear your father is just as much of a kid as you guys are."_ Susan says._

"Hey Mom, Can I get this?"_ she asks holding up a 'Goonies' t-shirt._

"What do you know about 'The Goonies'? That's before your time."_ her mom says._

"I've seen it before. I do watch TV you know."_ Brittany says._

"Go ahead and put it in the cart."_ she says. _"I'm gonna go call your dad real quick. Be right back."_ she says._

"OK."_ Brittany answers walking around to look at more clothes. Then she hears a familiar name._

"Santana, Come back here."_ a woman calls._

_Brittany looks around for the source of that voice and her eyes fall on Santana's mother._

"Where's Santana?"_ she says to herself turning the corner but bumps into someone almost knocking them down._

"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention to..."_ Brittany began to say, then soon realized the person she bumped into was Santana. _

"Oh. Umm...Sorry."_ she says to Santana._

"It's cool. I wasn't really looking either."_ she said back._

_They pretty much just stand there looking at each other, not really knowing what else to say. Brittany's mind goes back to when they were last together in her room and that 'moment'. She suddenly feels nervous for some reason around her and she doesn't know why. Not like a bad nervous. Just a feeling of not knowing how to act around her. It's just weird. Why was she feeling this way? _

"Your lip looks better."_ Santana says breaking Brittany from her thoughts._

"Yeah, I've been putting stuff on it."_ she says._

"Good."_ Santana says._

"Yeah..."_ Brittany says back._

AWKWARD_...They stand in silence once again until Santana's mom walks up behind her._

"Didn't you here me calling you!"_ Maribel says. _"Got me yelling all over the store like a crazy woman."

_Noticing Brittany, she says _"Oh hey. Brittany right?"

"Yeah, Hi Mrs. Lopez."_ she says waving at her._

_Then Santana tells her mom, _"I was coming. I went to go get this."_ she said showing her mother the necklace._

"Santana we're here for clothes and that's it. Now come on and try these clothes on so we can go. I still have to go by the grocery store so I get something for dinner tonight."_ her mom says._

"Can't it just be like an early birthday present?"_ Santana begs._

"I'll think about it. But for now, put it back."_ she says. _

"Come on. I don't have all day."_ Maribel says walking off._

_Huffing, Santana throws the necklace down knowing her mother is not going to get it for her. If she was, she would not have told her to put it back. It was the only one too. Guess someone else will be getting it. _

_Turning back to Brittany, Santana tells her, _"See you later."

"Bye."_ Brittany waves watching her walk in her mother's direction._

_Looking down, Brittany picks up the necklace Santana threw down. Examining it, she thinks it's pretty and sees why Santana wanted it. Its silver with a microphone and music notes hanging from it. Turning it over, she looks at the price. _

"25 dollars? Jesus!"_ Putting it back down, She goes back over to her mom._

* * *

_When she walks up to her, Brand and her dad are standing there as well._

"Britt, Look what dad got me?"_ Brandon says showing off his new video game excitedly._

"Is this the new one?"_ Brittany asks just as excited as him._

"Yep!"_ he says._

"Brittany?"_ her father says calling her over._

"Yeah?"_ she answers her dad walking to him._

"Here. Go pick out something you want."_ he says handing her some money._

"Seriously? Thanks."_ she says._

"I know how you kids are. Can't get your brother something and not get you anything."_ her dad says patting her shoulder, then walks off towards her mom with the cart._

"I don't know what to get though."_ Brittany says thinking to herself and looking around the store._

_Then Brittany's eyes land on Santana walking out of the store looking sad._

_Debating on what to do she decides, _"I know exactly what I want."

"Brittany you ready? We're about to check out. We still have to go to Staples for your supplies remember?"_ her mom shouts to her._

"Coming!"_ Brittany says back but goes back for it before going over to the check out._

_The Pierce's stand in line and pay for their purchases. When they're done, they make their way to Staples to finish up shopping._

* * *

_A little bit later in the afternoon, Brittany is sitting in the living room with her dad watching TV. Her mom is in the kitchen starting on Dinner and Brand is upstairs playing his new video game._

"What's this I hear about my baby girl being a dancer?"_ Brittany's dad says taking a sip of his beer._

"What can I say? I'm a girl of many talents."_ she says jokingly._

"Must be that Pierce blood flowing through your veins."_ he says back laughing._

"I can't wait to go. I've never been so excited for something in my life."_ she tells him._

"Really? What happen to that time I took you to that Britney Spears concert? If I remember correctly, you said that then too."_ he father reminds her._

"Well...That was then. But if it wasn't for her, I probably wouldn't be dancing."_ Brittany says acknowledging her influence._

"Good to know. So when am I gonna see these skills?"_ he asks._

"Dad!"_ she says like he's spoiling it._

"What?"_ he says wondering what he did wrong._

"I can't show you yet. You gotta wait just like everybody else. When we have a show, you and mom can see me then. I want to surprise you guys."_ Brittany says to him._

_It was the truth. She really wanted to surprise them. But the real reason she wanted them to wait was because she wanted it to be perfect. She wasn't even sure she was that great of a dancer yet. The only person to have ever seen her dance was Brand. Oh and her Britney Spears poster too. And even though Brand said she was amazing, he doesn't count. He thinks ketchup on eggs is amazing too. Dancing with her peers is one thing. Dancing for her parents, that's major. She just wants them to be proud of her and see her at her best. Brittany's getting even more nervous now thinking about that first showcase._

"OK. I guess I can wait."_ he says hanging his arm over her shoulders and sipping some of his beer._

"Whew!"_ she exhales. _"That was close."_ Brittany thinks to herself._

* * *

_'Ding Dong'_

"Britt, can you get that?"_ her mother yells from the kitchen._

"Coming!"_ she shouts as she goes to the door. Looking out the window to the side of the door, she sees Sam and Puck._

"Hey guys."_ she says as she opens the door and goes outside._

"What's good girl?"_ Puck says dapping her up._

"Sup Britt?"_ Sam says sitting on the porch._

"Where's Brand?"_ Puck asks_

"He's upstairs playing his new game."_ Brittany tells them._

_Hearing a car pull up, she looks next door and sees Santana's dad pulling into the driveway._

"Is that her dad?"_ Sam asks looking across the yard._

"Santana? Yeah, that's him."_ she answers as she watches him go into the house._

"Mercedes told us about him. Don't wanna get on his bad side either."_ Puck says in slight fear._

"I know right. I mean he is her father. She came from him. I can just imagine."_ Sam says agreeing with Puck._

"Santana's not that bad."_ Brittany says taking up for her._

"Since when?"_ Sam says shocked at what she said._

"She's just not. Just give her a break."_ she says hoping they'll back off._

"If you say so."_ Sam says getting up. _"Is it OK If I go in and chill with Brand?"

"Sure."_ Brittany says_

"I'm gonna go too. I wonder what new game he's playing."_ Puck says walking in the door with Sam._

* * *

_After sitting for a few moments, Brittany gets up to go in but stops when she sees Santana coming outside._

_Santana sits down on her porch and rests her forehead on her arms which are already lying on top of her knees._

_Watching her, Brittany thinks about going over there to check on her. Yesterday, she came outside when her parents came home. Then tonight, she comes outside as soon as her dad gets home. Coincidence? Brittany doesn't think so. She thinks Santana is trying to escape by 'getting some fresh air'. And the way she's hanging her head is evidence of her current mood. She's sad._

_Wishing she can cheer her up somehow, Brittany goes back into her house to her room to retrieve that answer. After getting it, she goes back outside and across the yard to Santana's porch._

_Getting closer, Brittany touches Santana's shoulder causing her to jump._

"What the..."_ Santana nearly screams popping up but relaxes when she sees Brittany standing in front of her._

"Sorry! I probably should have said something before coming up on you like that."_ she says trying to calm her down._

"Now I know what a heart attack feels like if that was it."_ Santana says with her hand over her heart._

"Can I sit with you or do you want to be alone?"_ she asks hoping she'll allow her stay._

"No."_ she says answering her._

"No I can't sit down or No you don't want to be alone?"_ Brittany asks confused._

"Yeah. No. I mean yes you can sit down."_ Santana says trying to make it more clear and she scoots over._

_Brittany sits down on the porch with her and taps her foot on the ground. _

"Are you OK?"_ she says looking at Santana._

_Santana lifting her head once again, she looks Brittany in the eyes. _"I guess."

"Sounds like a no to me."_ Brittany says._

_Santana sort of agrees with her by shaking her head up and down but doesn't say anything._

"Wanna talk about it?"_ she asks thinking that may help._

_In a way, Santana does want to talk about it. Brittany seems like the type of person she can tell and ask anything. But she doesn't want to be vulnerable right now. When she told Quinn about her parents, she was able to keep it together. With Brittany here, she feels like she just might breakdown. And right now, that is not something she wanted to do. At least not in front of her. She doesn't want to let her walls down just yet. Santana still can't believe what she did last night when she went over to Brittany's and apologized. She never says sorry. Something in her just broke and made her do it. With everything that was going on, that really weighed on her heart. She needed that release and she's glad she did because Brittany's here right now with her._

_Placing her hand over Santana's hand, she says _"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. We can just sit here."_ Brittany tells her holding her gaze._

_Just that look right there made Santana wanna ball and spill her guts. But she won't allow it. Her hand covering hers is sending chills throughout her body though._

"Thanks."_ Santana says to her relaxing._

_Now both girls sit there in silence, watching the sunset. Moments later, Santana leans on Brittany's shoulder comfortably and she welcomes it._

_Santana inhales and exhales again and Brittany takes notice. She clearly has something on her mind. Something she wants to say but she just won't say it. She's keeping it bottled up. It's funny how she can sort of read her without really knowing her that well personally. There's still some uncertainty. Definitely some strange connection going on here and it makes Brittany more curious._

_Her soft giggle brings Santana out of her reverie._

"What's so funny?"_ she asks._

_Shaking her head, Brittany says, _"Nothing. Just thinking."

"Thanks for sitting out here with me."_ Santana says._

"I don't mind it. I saw how sad you looked so I came to check on you. And if sitting here with you helps, then I'm satisfied with that."_ Brittany tells her._

"Why can't everyone be like you?"_ she says loving Brittany's qualities and nature._

"Because I'm Brittany. Ain't no other like me. Like my dad would say, 'It's that Pierce blood'."_ she jokes._

_Laughing with her, Santana finally smiles._

"There we go! Finally got a smile from you."_ she says smiling just as wide as Santana._

_Remembering what she has in her pocket, Brittany stretches her leg out so she can get it out._

"Now or never."_ Brittany says to herself._

"Hey San."_ she says to her shortening her name and it doesn't go unnoticed by Santana. She likes the nickname._

"Yeah Britt."_ she says returning the favor._

_Holding the box out towards her, she says _"Happy Birthday!"

"It's not my birthday."_ she says looking at the box in her hand._

"I know. But I heard you say your birthday was coming up. Think of it as an early birthday gift."_ Brittany says mocking Santana from earlier and hands her the box._

_Taking it, Santana opens it wondering what's inside._

"Oh My God!"_ is what Santana's face is saying because she's actually speechless right now looking at it._

"I saw how much you wanted it and when I saw you leaving, I went to get it before anyone else could."_ Brittany tells her as she watches the expressions on her face._

_Staring at the necklace, Santana's eyes start to tear up hearing what Brittany said. She can't believe she got this for her. When she left the store earlier that day, she swore she would never see it again or that she would even have it now. And Brittany bought it for her. For her, so no one else could get it. What on earth did she do to deserve this? Brittany is amazing. She's everything she could ever want in a friend. Santana doesn't even know if they're friends. They must be now. Friends only do things like this for other friends._

_ Turning to her suddenly, she wraps Brittany in the tightest hug she has ever given anyone._

_Caught off guard, the air is sort of knocked out of her. _"Whoa!"_ she says accepting the hug. Holding her for a second, she starts to hear sniffling._

"Are you crying?"_ she asks, and then Santana pulls back._

_She shakes her head and wipes her eyes from the fallen tears. _"I'm just so happy."_ she says emotionally._

"Well I'm glad I could make that happen for you."_ Brittany smiles._

"Can you help me put it on?"_ Santana asks taking it out of the box and turns her back towards her._

_Brittany takes it out of her hand and puts it around her neck attaching the clasps._

"There you go."_ she says._

_Santana turns back around, grabbing her pendants. Looking down at it, She admires it then smiles._

"She really does like it."_ Brittany thinks to herself._

"Oh! Did I even say thank you? Jesus. Thank you so much Brittany!"_ Santana rushes out and hugs her again._

"You're welcome."_ she says laughing. _

_Pulling back from the hug, Brittany asks _"What was so special about this necklace that you just had to have it?"_ wondering the meaning of it for her._

"These."_ she says separating the pendants so she can see them._

"I like music so the notes represent that. This microphone here also represents the fact that I like to sing too."_ Santana tells Brittany._

"You look like you can sing."_ she says agreeing with her explanation._

"What? How can someone look like they can sing?"_ Santana asks giggling._

"I don't know. You just do. You got that singing face."_ not knowing how else to say it._

"You're silly Britt."_ she smiles._

_Still admiring her necklace, Brittany stares at her._

"Maybe later we could add something to it like people do with bracelets."_ she offers._

"Yeah!"_ Santana says._

_Breaking them from their little happy bubble, They hear some raised voices coming from Santana's house. _

_Already knowing what it is, Santana's smile begins to fade._

_Not wanting her mood to change, Brittany has an invite for Santana to distract her._

"Hey. Want to come over my house? You could even stay for dinner."_ she asked hopefully._

"Really? Would your parents be OK with that?"_ Santana said not sure._

"Duh! Come on."_ Brittany says getting up._

"OK, But I need to tell my parents first."_ She starts contemplating going inside to even ask and hesitates._

"We can call them from my house if you want."_ she puts out there._

_Grateful for that suggestion, she agrees and walks across the yard to Brittany's house._

* * *

"Mom, Santana's staying over for dinner. That's cool right?"_ Brittany asks her mom as she walks into the kitchen._

"Sure. Hey Santana."_ Susan greets her._

"Hi Mrs. Pierce."_ she says feeling welcomed. _"Tell the boys to keep it down up there."_ she adds._

"OK."_ she says as her and Santana run up the steps._

_Brittany walks into her brother's room with Santana._

"What the hell Brittany?"_ Sam says confused at the sight of Santana standing there._

"Shut up before I sick her on you. And mom said to keep it down yall."_ she tells them._

"Yeah you don't want that Sam."_ Brand says grinning._

"What's up girl?"_ Puck says to Santana._

"Uh Hey."_ Santana says back._

WEIRD

"Santana is staying for dinner. You guys staying too?"_ she asks._

"Free Food!"_ Sam shouts and he hi-fives Puck  
_

"I'll take that as a yes."_ Brittany says causing Santana to laugh. _

"Let's go."_ She says grabbing Santana's hand and walking into her room._

* * *

"Don't forget to call your parents."_ she reminds her pointing to the phone before hopping on the bed._

"I'm on it."_ Santana says walking over the computer desk._

_Santana calls home._

"Hello"_ her mother answers sounding drained. Probably worn out from arguing she thinks._

"Hey Mami, I'm over at Brittany's. Is it OK if I stay for dinner? already said it was fine."_ she tells her in a hurry._

_Sighing, her mother says, _"Sure mija, whatever."_ then she hangs up without saying bye._

_Looking at the receiver hearing the dial tone, Santana hangs up._

"That was odd."_ she says._

"What did she say?"_ Brittany inquired reading her expression thinking she told her 'No'._

"She's fine with it but she just didn't sound like herself."_ She wonders if she should be worried as she walks over to sit on Brittany's bed._

"You OK?"_ she asked her touching her hand._

_Snapping out of it, Santana says _"Yeah."_ Quickly wanting to forget about her parents and their issues, she walks back over to the desk and stares at Brittany's CD collection._

"Linkin Park. Is this the one with 'Numb' on it?"_ she asks looking over it._

"Yep. That's one of my favorite. Such a classic."_ Brittany coined. _"Wanna listen to it?"_ she asked making her way over to the stereo._

"Go ahead DJ."_ Santana said handing over the CD._

_Playing the song, both girls went back to the bed and began jamming out. They played various songs for the next 30 minutes at Santana's request._

_Now playing 'Everytime' by Britney Spears, Brittany herself begins to melt because Santana is singing. This is by far, her favorite song and Santana is singing it like an angel._

"Beautiful."_ Brittany whispered at Santana in a musical trance._

"Huh?"_ she said stopping._

"Oh. Did I say that out loud? I'm sorry."_ She says as she regrets interrupting her. _"It's just your voice is so beautiful. When you said you sang, I wasn't expecting all that."

_Feeling a little bashful, she accepts the compliment. _"Thanks."_ smiling at her._

"You're totally gonna be famous one day. Hopefully I'll be a famous dancer. But you're definitely gonna be a famous singer though. I can see it now."_ Brittany says daydreaming._

"Famous singer? I don't know. I never really thought about it."_ she says. The thought of it frightens her. Santana just loved to sing. She wasn't planning on making something of it._

"You should."_ Brittany says encouraging her._

"Naw, but I bet you'll be great."_ she says trying to deflect._

"You've never even seen me dance before."_ Brittany says. She has evidence that Santana can sing. How does she know that?_

"I believe in you."_ Santana tells her in all seriousness._

"I believe in you too."_ she repeats meaning it just as much._

"Kids, Dinner is ready!"_ Susan shouts up the steps._

_Brittany and Santana hop off of the bed and open her door to exit but they are cut off by the boys running past them._

"Rude!"_ Brittany shouts at them almost backing up on Santana._

* * *

_In the dining room_

"Who's the other shorty?"_ Brittany's dad asks walking into the dining room seeing Santana._

"Dad this is my friend Santana."_ she answers._

"Well hey there Santana."_ He says and Santana just waves._

'FRIEND'

_Santana is so happy to hear that word coming from Brittany. The necklace was already a dead giveaway but her saying it just sealed the deal._

_Brittany and Santana are officially friends..._

_Going to sit at the table. _

"Aight fellas. Make some room for shorty."_ Mr. Pierce tells them._

"She can have my seat."_ he said._

_What! Puck just gave up his seat for Santana. God is laying hands tonight._

_Puck allows Santana to sit down. She throws him a 'thanks' and he grabs another chair from against the wall to sit down on the other side of the table._

_Looking around, All Santana can say is _"I'm home."

_This is all Santana had ever wanted with her own family but it seemed so out of reach. Even if her own parents never got it right, she didn't mind being a honorary member of the Pierce. Even the boys were coming around. Are things finally turning around for a change?_

_Everyone talks amongst themselves, joking every now and then. This is the life! But it's getting late. Dinner ends too quick for Santana and she must go home now._

"Thanks for dinner tonight Mrs. Pierce. It was great."_ Santana says helping take the dishes to the kitchen._

"You're welcome Santana. And call me Susan."_ she says._

"Yeah. Dinner was great Susan."_ Brittany jokes as she stands beside her mother putting the dishes in the sink._

"Don't try that with me Britt."_ her mom says playfully pinching her cheeks and she laughs._

_Santana watches the interaction between mother and daughter in awe. She feels kind of sad but only for a split second. She's really happy for Brittany. It's that time so Santana announces that she's leaving._

"Goodnight guys."_ she says._

"I'll walk you out."_ Brittany says walking around the counter to the front door with Santana._

"Thanks for the invite tonight Britt. Your family is so cool."_ she says._

"Anytime. You can come over whenever you want San."_ She tells her meaning every word._

_Before leaving the porch, Santana hugs Brittany in another tight hug and kisses her on the cheek. Making her way across the yard, she turns around and waves just as she hits her steps and goes inside._

_Standing on her porch still, Brittany touches her cheek where Santana kissed her. There goes that strange feeling again. What is she doing to me?_

* * *

_Walking up to her room, Santana goes to tell her parents she's home._

"Mom, I'm home."_ she tells her mom peeking in her room. Seeing her mom sitting up against the headboard with a glass a wine, Santana wonders where her father is._

"Where's papi?"

"He's gone."_ she says dryly while taking a sip._

"Gone where?"_ Not even noticing she didn't see his car in the driveway on her way back from Brittany's. She was definitely distracted._

"I don't know and I don't care. He can stay gone for all I care."_ Maribel said as she finished the glass and sat it next to an empty bottle._

"What the hell happened here tonight?"_ she thinks walking out to her room after closing the bedroom door. Whatever happened, whatever it was, it wasn't good. Her dad never left after an argument. He usually went to the living room. Where did he go? Why did have to leave this time?_

* * *

_It has been 3 days since Santana has seen her dad. She was beginning to wonder if he would ever come back. Sitting in her room, she was listening to the Britney Spears CD Brittany let her borrow. She said she never lets ANYONE borrow her Britney CD's but she would make an exception for her. Ever since that night with Brittany, They've been getting along so well. The boys too. Especially Puck. Didn't see that one coming either. Quinn and Mercedes kicked it with them yesterday in Brittany's room and they watched 'Mean Girls' together. Her and Mercedes got a chance to catch up and shared some of their wild Lima Heights stories they each had with Brittany and Quinn too. _

_So everything has been good, except for her mom's attitude and her dad's absence. But Brittany and the crew have kept her distracted. She even invited Santana to come to her first showcase at the center with The Pierce's when she dances for them for the first time. And she honestly can't wait. Plus she's gonna get to meet this Jake guy that got Brittany blushing yesterday on the phone when he called her and told her he would be there too. It was like the most cutest thing ever. Santana and the girls couldn't stop laughing at how red she got. _

_Getting tired of mopping around, Santana decides to go over to Brittany's house. She should be up by now. School is starting tomorrow and they need to come up with a stratergy on how they're gonna take over the school this year. 'Pinky and The Brain' style. When she mentioned this to Brittany, she just laughed at her but decided to go along with it anyway. Going down the steps, she hears keys at the door. Next thing, it was opening._

_Coming through the door was her dad..._"Well look who it is."_ she thought to herself. _

_Santana just stayed on the last step and watched him until he saw her._

"Oh. Hey mija."_ Santino said to her like he just saw her recently and had not been gone for 3 days. The nerve._

_She just looked at him not saying a word. After worrying about him for the past few days and now seeing him, clearly ok, She has nothing to say to him. _

_Feeling guilty, he walks over to her but she walks around him as soon as he reaches her. _

_Santana heads to the door to leave, but he grabs her arm._

"I was talking to you."_ he said sternly feeling disrespected._

"Oh you wanna talk? You couldn't be bothered to talk to me when you decided to leave for days. You didn't even call. But you wanna talk?"_ she said coldly._

"Watch your attitude; I'm still your father Santana!"_ Santino scolds his daughter._

_Just as stubborn as ever, Santana just glares at him._

"Look, I'm sorry mija. I just needed some space."_ he says calming down recognizing that familiar look her mother would give._

"Space from me or mom? Or was it both?"_ she asks grilling him._

"What!"_ Santino doesn't know how Santana could ever think he would feel that way about his daughter._

"Don't play dumb with me dad. I hear you two every night arguing and It's always about me. So answer the question!"_ she says demandingly._

"No. I would never want to be away from you."_ denying it._

"So it was mom then?"_ she asks leaving her as the only obvious reason._

"Santana, you're far too young for me to be having this conversation with you. Our issues go way over your head and you shouldn't be involved in it."_ At least that's what he thinks._

"I already am. I'm your kid. Don't you think this is affecting me too?"_ Santana says._

_Sighing, he agrees. How could it not? She's right._

_Only way to get through this is to be honest and straight up. Taking her hand, he Brings her to the living room and he sits her down beside him. _

_He takes a deep breath and looks into Santana's waiting eyes._

"I asked your mom for a divorce last night."_ he finally gets out. Looking for some sort of reaction, He received none. Might as well tell it all._

"Please understand you were never the issue or a problem. Not to me or your mother. The problem is with us. How went about living our lives with each other. How we dealt with the consequences of our actions."_ He said._

"I would be lying if I said you weren't unexpected but you were a blessing to us all at the same time. What we didn't think through was how it would affect us later. We listened to everyone around us, Instead of doing what was right and best for us and mainly you. At the time, I had love for your mother. I wasn't in love with her. That came after you were born and even after we had already married." _Santino said shocking Santana._

"You married my mom even though you weren't in love with her?"_ Santana asked her dad. She couldn't understand why someone would marry someone they didn't love. Wasn't that the whole point of marriage. Being in love. That's what she knew from other families. Even fairytales._

"Yes. I thought it was the right thing to do for my family. Your mother was instantly my family. You were my family. As a man, I wanted to take care of you guys. I may not have been ready but I was happy to be a father and I was going to be there for you unlike my dad, who wasn't there for me."

_Taking this all in, She waited for him to go on._

"Being completely honest with you baby, we were just too young. But I accepted responsibility. I did what I was told, asked and what I thought was best for you and your mother. Mainly you though. Somewhere down the line, Things became stressful. Your mother and I grew apart. We were never really connected in the right way from the beginning. We just dealt with life as it happened not understanding how much it would affect us later. And here we are."_ He finished._

"Well it sure sounds like I'm the reason."_ Santana says confused after hearing all that._

"Not at all. You didn't ask to be here. We brought you into this world. Everything from then on was our responsibility. Our duties as parents are to love you, raise you and teach you the ways of life. Once you become an adult, you become responsible for yourself and your own actions. Maybe even before that depending on the situation."

"Here's a lesson for you. Don't do anything you're not ready to take responsibility for. Being mature isn't just a look, feeling, age or state of mind. Its knowledge and understanding. Knowing when you're ready which comes from experience and wisdom. Being young and inexperienced in life was our problem. But even faced with that, we were still blessed with you and handle things as best as we could."_ Santino said hopefully getting through to her._

_Starting to comprehend what he was trying to say, she nodded at him._

"It's not all about what you did, how you got there but how you handle it and move on from there. That's Learning and Growth. And it's just not working out between us anymore. No point in forcing what was never really there from the beginning."

_Santana is not really sure where he's going with this but she continues to listen anyway. _

"I can't believe I'm even about to touch on this subject but you need to know. From a father to a daughter, don't give yourself to someone you don't love or someone that doesn't have your heart and vice versa. Sex is a responsibility. Make sure you're ready. It comes with consequences that are only for people who are mature enough to handle it. Or you can just wait until your 30. You would be doing us both a favor."_ he chuckled._

"Seriously though, we may have failed as a couple and marriage, but I will promise to never fail as a parent or father. You're my baby girl and I love you."_ he tells her pulling her into a hug._

"I love you too papi."_ Santana has never felt so overwhelmed in her life. This was a lot to take in. And she knew there was more to come._

"So what happens now? Are you moving out?"_ she asked._

"I'm afraid so. But that doesn't change anything between us. I will always be your father mija."_ Santino says kissing her forehead and hugging her._

_Santana's mom comes through the door with bags and sees the two of them on the couch._

"Go ahead and go outside to play mija. Your mom and I need to talk"_ he tells her._

_Santana gets up and walks past her mom outside to Brittany's._

* * *

_Hearing the doorbell, Brittany runs downstairs to answer the door. She didn't even bother asking who it was. She already knew. _

_Opening the door, she says _"I knew it was you!"_ smiling from ear to ear. But her smile didn't reach Santana's eyes._

"San? What's wrong?"_ Brittany asks her. To her, she looks like someone just killed her dog. But Santana didn't have one, so that couldn't be it._

_Letting her in, Santana attaches herself to Brittany in a hug like a magnet with so much force. _

_Being able to finally let it out, she starts to cry in her arms. It's just something about being in Brittany's presence that allows her to be her true self. She rarely acts how she's supposed to or how she's use to acting. Which is basically guarded. Now she's just an emotional wreck. _

_Walking towards the stairs. Brittany takes her up to her room. When they get there, Santana goes to flop down face first into the pillow on Brittany's bed. She's done that so many times in her own, Now she feels comfortable to do it in Brittany's. _

_Shutting her door, she goes to sit up beside her on the other side of her bed. Running her hand through Santana's hair to sooth her, She asks _"San what happened?"

"My parents are getting divorced."_ she says as she sniffles into the pillow._

_Not quite sure she heard right, she repeats _"Divorced?"

_Lifting her head, Santana says _"Yes."_ She moves her head to rest it in Brittany's lap looking out the window. _

_Brittany continues to run her hand through her hair which feels like the most natural thing ever. Her mom always did it to her and she loved it. Maybe Santana will love it too._

_She begins to tell Brittany everything. About how her parents argue almost every night, which she witnessed a couple of times. Then what they argue about and what they say. And now what her dad had just told her in their conversation._

"I don't even know why I'm getting so worked up over this. I knew this was coming. In a way, I wanted this. But now I'm not so sure. I just wanted the arguing to stop. But I guess now it will."_ she adds on._

"I'm so sorry San. Now I know why you were so angry at first. That's a lot to deal with. I wouldn't know what to do if my parents were to ever divorce. I don't even want to think about it. I'm glad you finally told me though."_ Brittany says feeling like they've reached a new level in their friendship._

TRUST

"Why can't my parents be more like your parents? I would give anything to have that. Even a little brother."_ she says._

"But you do have that. At least you do now. I don't mind sharing with you. You are officially apart of the Pierce clan."_ Brittany says like she's crowning royalty and hears a giggle from Santana._

_Turning to look up into Brittany's eyes, she says _"Thanks Britt. You're too good to me."

"Wouldn't have it any other way."_ Brittany smiles down at her._

_They sat in silence for a few moments. She almost thought Santana fell asleep in her lap until she heard her exhale loudly. That let her know she was indeed awake but also in deep thought._

"What are you thinking about San?"_ she asks her._

"My dad. He said the arguing and them divorcing has nothing to do with me."_ she said going over everything in her head again._

"Do you believe him?"_ Brittany asks._

"The way he explained it...Yes. But I just can't help but think that if I was never born, none of this would be happening. My parents clearly wouldn't have married each other. I just think I was a mistake sometimes."_ she says feeling like she ruined things._

"Santana, Just stop it. You're not a mistake. You know what I think? I think you were meant to be born so we could be friends. So I'm glad you're here."_ Brittany says not accepting any other explanation._

"You think so?"_ she asks looking up at Brittany one more time._

"Of course. Everything happens for a reason. And It's definitely way better than thinking of it any other way."_ she tells her._

_Needing a change of subject, Brittany asks Santana about her birthday plans._

"Somebody has a birthday coming up soon. What are you doing?"_ she says excitedly._

"Nothing."_ said with so much enthusiasm...NOT_

"No party? No going out to eat?"_ Brittany questioned._

"Nope. I'm just not in the mood for it this year."_ she said not having a reason to celebrate in her eyes._

"But what about gifts?"_ Brittany asks trying to persuade her._

"You already got me a gift."_ Santana says satisfied with her necklace._

"So. That was an early birthday gift and maybe I want to get you another one. You can even get more gifts from other people."_ She says._

_Brittany just thinks Santana is trying to be difficult._

"Who would come?"_ she asks._

"We could throw you a party here! It could be the boys with Mercedes and Quinn. I could even invite Mike and Jake. Ok maybe not Jake. He and Puck apparently don't get along. But I could figure something out."_ she says pleading._

"Thanks but no thanks. Why can't I just spend my birthday with you?"_ That was almost sweet but Santana is definitely trying to charm her way out of this._

"But that's sounds so boring."_ Brittany says._

"No it doesn't. We would have just as much fun by ourselves, If not more."_ Santana claims._

_Giving in, she just agrees. _"OK. It's your birthday so whatever you want to do, we'll do."

"Finally! Now we can talk about something more serious like school."_ she says hopping up onto her knees facing Brittany._

"Pinky, Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"_ Santana asks reciting the cartoon line._

_And Brittany jumped right in saying _"I think so Brain..."

* * *

**...TO BE CONTINUED**

* * *

**AN:** We're getting there!

**STAY TUNED! :)**


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